


As I Breathe So Does She

by vverra



Category: Star Wars - All Media Types
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Anakin Skywalker Doesn't Turn to the Dark Side, Angst and Hurt/Comfort, Family Feels, Fluff and Angst, Hurt/Comfort, Luke Skywalker Needs A Hug, Sith Leia Organa, and so does his sister, its going to get worse before it gets better i promise, just hug the whole family damnit, sun and moon twins, the galaxy's favorite dysfunctional family
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-11-19
Updated: 2020-12-20
Packaged: 2021-03-10 00:07:48
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 5
Words: 22,814
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27624496
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/vverra/pseuds/vverra
Summary: A lost sister reappears ten years after she was kidnapped from a bedroom on Naboo, but she isn't the sister Luke remembers anymore.
Relationships: Anakin Skywalker & Luke Skywalker, Leia Organa & Luke Skywalker, Padmé Amidala/Anakin Skywalker
Comments: 42
Kudos: 103





	1. The One Left Behind

**Author's Note:**

> So ever since I wrote [this](https://archiveofourown.org/works/26764300/chapters/65489389) for Angstober, I've been tossing it around as a potential fic idea. So here's the first chapter!
> 
> Luke is a Jedi Padawan bucking against the rigid rules his parents and Master have implemented on him. He decides one moment of teenage rebellion won't hurt, right?

“I’m bored. How much longer do we have to sit here?”

Luke heard a ‘thump’ from beside him and opened one eye to see Cliko flopped over on the grass of the greenhouse floor, looking miserable. Luke smiled at his friend’s antics.

“Come on, Cliko,” Luke said, encouragingly. “We haven’t been sitting here that long.”

Cliko scowled at Luke from his place facedown in the grass. 

“Not all of us like sitting quiet for _hours._ ”

“It hasn’t been hours,” Abeckla said from across the small circle the Padawans were arranged in, not even bothering to open her eyes. “Quit being dramatic, Cliko.”

“Boys,” Raven lamented, shaking her head. Abeckla nodded in agreement.

Luke stifled a laugh behind his hand as Cliko silently stuck his tongue out at the girls. With her eyes still closed, Abeckla stuck up her middle finger in response.

Although he wouldn’t show it, like Cliko did at every given opportunity, Luke didn’t love standard meditation either. He preferred a moving variation to just sitting on the grass in the Room of a Thousand Fountains for hours, but he understood the importance of being able to utilize all of the different forms. Plus, that's what their teacher had instructed of them, so that's what he was going to until class was over. 

It was silent as they all sank deeper into the Force once more, letting the serenity of the space envelope them in it’s comforting embrace. Luke wrapped it around himself like his favorite cloak and as it shrouded him in calmness, he began to feel the bonds holding all life together begin to shimmer solidly in front of him. As the Force flowed between those strings, plucking at them like harp, Luke heard the soft sounds of the universe coming together. He slowed his breathing to match that of the planet inhaling around him. 

It took a few cycles of breathing, but Luke felt himself dissolve into the Force. Not long after however, a voice startled him, breaking that unity he’d formed with the Force.

“I don’t know how any of you can concentrate anyway with Skywalker here giving off more light than the kriffing sun.”

Luke opened his eyes and the bonds around him snapped. Awareness came back in a rush that left his equilibrium off for a moment before he grounded himself. 

He scowled at Cliko. “I do not.”

“You kind of do, Luke,” Abeckla added, coming down out of her own mediation more gracefully than Luke did. “It’s not a bad thing, you’re just very present in the Force when you meditate.” 

“Oh,” Luke said, “I didn’t notice.”

“Of course you wouldn’t, nobody notices their own aura,” Cliko said, rolling over to lay on his side, his head propped up by his hand. “I’m hungry. Is anyone else hungry?”

“You’re always hungry,” Raven said. 

“So? I’m a growing Mon Calamari. I need my nutrients.”

The rest of the group discussed their options for dinner while Luke’s mind wandered. He wondered why no one had ever told him before that he was loud in the Force when he mediated. Surely that was something he needed to fix? Why hadn’t Master Obi-wan ever instructed him on how to stop that? Why hadn’t his father?

“Luke.” Raven’s voice pulled him from his thoughts. 

“Hm? Sorry I wasn’t listening,” Luke admitted, turning his attention back to his friends. 

“What’s the place we went to with Master Kenobi that one time? The burger place?” 

“Dex’s Diner?”

“Yes!” Cliko exclaimed, clapping his hands, “We should go there. They had great milkshakes.”

“I’m in. I’m tired of main house food. Yesterday they had hawk-bat eggs for dinner, it was gross.” Raven scrunched up her nose in disgust as she was reminded of one of the more outlandish options the temple sometimes offered for meals. Cliko and Abeckla both made disgusted faces as well. 

Luke didn’t have that problem. He rarely ever ate meals in one of the Jedi refractories, besides snacking. Breakfast and dinner he took with his parents at their apartment and then he usually ate lunch with Obi-wan, who was a known skeptic of Temple food. And while Luke didn’t envy his friends’ disgust at their food choices, he did feel a nagging bit of jealousy that often surfaced whenever they spoke about their shared experiences living in the Temple. 

Luke didn’t have that. 

“You know the way, right?” Cliko asked him as they all began to gather their things. 

Luke shrugged on his cloak, fastening it in the front. “Yeah I do, Obi-wan and I go there all the time.” 

“Great!”

Luke hesitated for a moment before adding, slightly embarrassed, “I have to call first and make sure it’s alright before we go.”

“Seriously?” Cliko asked. “But you said you go all the time?”

“I do,” Luke replied, “ _with_ Obi-wan.”

“But you’re with us! And you’re 15, that’s practically the age of responsibility.”

Luke could feel his ears heating up . 

“I didn’t expect Master Kenobi to be the overbearing type. He seems reasonable.”

“He usually is, but this is more my parents’ rule than his.”

“Master Skywalker’s? But why would he-”

“Cliko.” Abeckla cut him off with a look that clearly said to shut up. When she turned to Luke, she plastered a smile back on her face. “Go ahead Luke, we’ll wait right here for you.”

Luke gave her a grateful glance as he stepped away from the group and pulled out his comlink. Despite him telling Cliko it was his parents who were the overbearing ones, Luke dialed a different number. 

Obi-wan’s face lit up blue after only the first ring. 

“Hello, Luke.”

“Hey, Obi-wan,” Luke said, “I have a question for you.”

“Of course, what can I help you with, my Padawan?”

Luke rocked back on his heels, looking anywhere but at his Master’s face. 

“Some of the other Padawans and I just finished our meditations for the day and they want to get dinner at Dex’s. I want to go with them.”

“Luke,” Obi-wan hesitated, “have you asked-”

“No,” Luke cut in, “I called you. You’re my Master. None of the others need to ask their parents for permission to go somewhere. They ask their Master.”

“None of the other students have their parents around, Luke. You’re lucky enough to have both,” Obi-wan chastised. Luke nodded, embarrassed at his small outburst. He was very grateful to have his parents. 

Obi-wan sighed. “You can go, Luke, but be back before curfew. You can spend the night at the Temple tonight if you’d like.”

Luke lit up at that. “Really I can?”

“Yes,” Obi-wan smiled. “We have lightsaber practice early tomorrow morning anyway, it will be easier if you’re already at the Temple.”

“Thank you, Master, you’re the best,” Luke said. “Okay I have to go, see you tonight! Bye!”

Obi-wan barely had a chance to get out his own good-bye before Luke was pocketing his comlink and running back over to join his friends waiting by the exit. 

“Alright,” he said, “let’s go!”

* * *

Despite it being the end of the work week, Dex’s Diner wasn’t as busy as it usually was and they were able to get a booth as soon as they entered. Dex had given him a big wave when he spotted him over the kitchen window and sent over a basket of complimentary grilled skewers to their table. 

“That settles it, if coming here with Luke means free food, we’re coming here every week,” Cliko said, picking up another skewer and pulling all the meat off in one messy bite. 

Luke shared a disgusted look with Abeckla while Raven laughed at their friend’s poor table manners. 

As they finished their meal, Luke wandered over to the kitchen door to see Dex and thank him for the skewers. Dex just patted him so roughly on the back his knees buckled. 

“Between Kenobi and Skywalker, your family practically keeps me in business! It’s the least I could do for their littlest member and his friends n'all!”

Luke gave Dex a hug, before making his way back to the booth where his friends were finishing the last remnants of their milkshakes. Before he reached the booth, he could tell Abeckla and Cliko were arguing by the looks on their faces. Luke sighed and braced himself for whatever spat they were having. He loved his friends dearly, but, kriff they knew how to push each other's buttons. 

As he approached, he prepared himself to stay neutral. 

“No,” Abeckla was saying, her arms crossed over her chest. 

“Why not,” Cliko shot back just as hotly, “it’s not going to hurt anyone.”

“It’s going to hurt _us_ when our Masters find out.”

Cliko waved a hand, dismissively. “You’re worrying too much, they won’t find out. We’ll be back before curfew.”

Luke didn’t like the sound of that. He slid into the both beside Raven and looked to her for an explanation. 

“What’s going on?”

“The guy behind was just talking about an undercity bot fight taking place tonight not far from here. Cliko wants to go.” 

“I think we all want to go,” Cliko stressed. “The girls here are just scared.”

Abeckla scowled at him. “We’re not scared, you nerf herder. Raven and I just aren’t stupid enough to go somewhere we know will get us in trouble. Luke isn’t either, right Luke?”

All eyes turned to him and he found himself in the precarious position of knowing he should agree with Abeckla and not go, but also really wanting to see a real undercity bot fight in the flesh. He’d only heard about them, and seen videos of them on the HoloNet. It was illegal to run underground, unregulated fights, but that's where the best bots were. His father thought it was barbaric, designing droids whose only purpose it was to hurt and kill the others. And while Luke agreed, he also wanted to see the technology in action. The bots were often incredible, innovative pieces of machinery. 

So he said nothing, but offered Abeckla a sheepish look. 

“Oh no,” she said, “not you ,too. You’re supposed to be more sensible than him.”

“Hey,” Cliko protested. 

“I mean,” Luke reasoned, “if we’re back before curfew, no one will know right? We won’t make a habit of it.”

“Yes!” Cliko whooped, throwing his fist in the air. “Luke’s on my side!”

Raven fixed him with an unimpressed stare. “What if your parents find out?”

That pissed Luke off. His parents didn’t have a say in everything he did. He didn’t want to be known as the kid that asked his parents for permission to do everything. 

If he was going to rebel, even a little, he decided then that it would be now, with going to see the bot fight. He wasn’t hurting anyone and he wouldn’t break curfew. It would be a very boring, small moment of rebellion, he reasoned. 

“We’re already over here, what’s one more level down. Plus, as long as we’re definitely back by curfew, there’s no harm. Just this once.”

“I mean, it does sound kinda fun…” Raven added. 

Abeckla frowned at her friend. “This is mutiny, you’re all turning against me.”

“Sorry, Becca, it just sounds fun. Plus, I’ve heard incredible things about the schematics of the bots. I want to see them in action!”

Luke nodded, agreeing with her.

“See,” Clicko added, “it’s educational.”

Abeckla pursed her lips and Luke, Raven, and Cliko stared at her in anticipation. If she decided against it, they wouldn’t go. But to Luke’s surprise, after a few seconds, Abeckla threw her hands up in resignation.

“Fine, I’m in,” she said, gathering her things. “But we have to be back by curfew.”

“Of course,” Luke agreed. He had no intention of being even a minute late back to the Temple. 

They made their way further into the undercity than Luke had ever been without an adult. He wasn’t scared, he knew that in the unlikely chance something happened, his friends and he could handle it. However, the deeper they descended, the more toxic the city felt around them. The less it felt like the airy companion Luke was used to, and the more it thickened to sludge around him. There were bad intentions radiating from pretty much everywhere. It made the back of Luke’s neck prickle with anxiety, he felt on edge.

It must have been bothering Raven, too, Luke noticed, because she kept nervously rubbing at her arms and looking to her side. He fell into step with her.

“You can feel it, too?” He asked. 

Raven nodded. “Everything down here feels unclean. Like there’s a layer of grime everywhere.”

“There is,” Abeckla said, pointing to a wall where a mysterious brown liquid was leaking from and smoking slightly as it dripped onto the sidewalk. 

“Come on,” Cliko said, hurriedly, “it’s in here.”

He pointed to the dark entrance of a seemingly abandoned warehouse just ahead of them. Luke reached out with the Force and could sense excitement from the lifeforms inside. 

They all hesitated at the doorway, waiting for someone to bite the blaster shot and go first. 

“All the way here and you guys stumble at the finish line,” Abeckla said, shaking her head. She pushed the door open and went inside, not even bothering to check to see if the rest of them followed. 

Raven, Cliko, and Luke all hurried in behind her.

It was like nowhere Luke had ever been. Coruscant was known for its diversity and it seemed almost every known species and was represented in the rough and tumble crowd that was before them. It was filled to what felt like max capacity as people pushed and shoved for a better view of the small ring in the center of the room. Drinks were in everyone’s hands it smelled like spice smoke.

“Hide your lightsabers,” Cliko said, sliding his belt around so that his lightsaber was firmly hidden by his cloak. “We don’t want to draw attention to ourselves.”

Luke followed his lead and saw the girls do the same. They stayed close to one another as they made their way closer to the action. It was hard to stay together in the jostling crowd and Luke found himself gripping Raven’s shawl to stay close to her. They side by side and see the action. 

“Watch it, kid,” the man next to him barked when Luke bumped him accidentally. 

“Sorry,” he said. 

“Luke,” Raven said, gripping his arm and pointing into the ring. “Look!”

Luke craned his neck to see what she was excited for. In the make-shift ring, two bots had begun to circle each other. One was small, and had no outwardly apparent weapons other than two small arms magnetically attached on its front, while the other was larger and outfitted with almost every type of weapon in the book. They circled each other for a bit, but ultimately the larger one made the first move. It swung a metal knife arm toward the smaller, mouse bot, but before it could try to stab the top, the knife arm fell off, seemingly out of nowhere.

The crowd gasped, Luke included, because the small droid had barely moved, yet somehow the arm was severed. This made the larger bot angry. It attacked again, this time with a stun prod, but like last time, the arm was severed before it could touch the surface of its opponent. The crowd roared again. 

“How’s it doing that?” Cliko yelled over the roaring. “It isn’t even moving!”

When the larger bot attacked for a third time, Luke focused harder in the action. Just as the bot swung down its weapon, Luke saw it: the smaller bot's arms, which were seemingly harmless, actually held a razor thin wire between them. They moved lightning speed around the body of the bot and sliced the weapon off before returning to center position. People yelled again as the small, defenseless looking bot did nothing (to their untrained eye) but slowly rendered it’s opponent weaponless, one slice at a time. 

“It’s got a wire, look,” Luke said pointing to the bot. His friends focused harder on where he was gesturing. “If the other bot continues to do singular attacks, it’s never going to win. They need to utilize simultaneous attacks with non standard weapons. Something to short circuit the wire or confuse it. I think it’s ultra thin plasma wiring, they need to use an ion beam to neutralize it and then it’s game over. It’s a smart design, it looks like it’s constantly on defense, but it’s not, the other guy is.”

They watched again as another arm was severed from the larger bot. 

“Man, Luke,” Cliko said, “you should build a bot and enter it. Between you and your dad’s mechanic skills, no one would be able to beat you. You’d think of everything.”

Luke snorted. It would snow on Tatooine before his father helped him build a droid to enter in a bot fight. 

The crowd cheered again, and Luke focused his attention back to the ring as the smaller bot got tired of slicing off one weapon at a time. The plasma wire glowed stronger between its hands, enough that everyone in the crowd could see it and extended its arms to slice the larger bot in half. With no more weapons to protect itself, the larger droid had nothing to stop the smaller bot as it cut it in half. The top slid cleanly off the bottom and the whirring of its circuit board stopped. There was simultaneous cheering and groaning as the onlookers either won and lost money from the smaller bot’s victory. 

“What happens now,” Abeckla asked. Despite her reluctance to come, Luke could see she was really enjoying the excitement of it all. 

“The smaller bot stays in the ring until someone can beat it I think.”

A referee came into the ring and kicked some of the broken bot pieces to the side. Then, a Rodian stepped up and placed another, even more vicious bot into the ring. The referee counted them down and it was game on again. 

“Unless something can incapacitate those arms, this one’s toast, too,” Luke said, wincing when the first piece of the new droid was sliced off. 

Although he was fully focused on the fight in front of him, Luke felt the resonance in the Force the moment it happened. It spiked and dulled with the action in the ring and he realized that he was sensing someone’s reaction to the bot fight. There was someone here he was familiar with. Luke scanned the crowd around him. 

Luke touched the presence lightly with his own, trying to parse out who it was among all of the other people he could feel from the crowd. When he inspected it, he found he knew who it was immediately. His head turned in the direction the Force instructed him to look in.

What he didn’t need the Force for was recognizing the hooded shape across the ring from him the moment he caught sight of him. 

“Oh Force,” Luke whispered, horrified. 

“What?” Raven asked, absently, still focused intently on the fight. 

“It’s my dad.”

“What!” Abeckla screamed. Suddenly all eyes were on him. 

Luke quickly put the hood of his cloak up and pointed across the venue where his father was still watching the fight. 

“We have to leave,” Luke urged, “now!”

He turned to quickly start exiting the crowd and smacked straight into the man standing behind him, the same one he’d bumped into when they’d first arrived. 

“Sorry, excuse me,” Luke said urgently, trying to squeeze past him. 

But the man grabbed Luke by the arm, almost lifting him off his feet. 

“I thought I told you to watch it, kid.” The man sneered, pulling Luke higher off his feet. 

“Let him go!” Cliko said, narrowing his eyes. 

“Oh great, another kid. When did they start letting so many little brats in here?” The man shook Luke roughly, dislodging his cloak which fell to the floor and exposed his lightsaber. 

“Oh, so you’re Jedi brats,” the man smirked, tightening his grip on Luke’s arm hard enough that Luke knew he’d have a bruise. “I don’t usually deal in sentients on the market, but I’d make an exception for you lot. Force sensitives pull in a pretty penny.”

The man whistled and few of the other patrons standing in the crowd turned their attention to Luke's friends, but the smugglers weren’t fast enough. Abeckla, Raven, and Cliko had their lightsabers drawn instantly. The men stopped in their tracks and pulled out blasters. 

“Come now, little Jedi, do you really want to start a fight? So many will get hurt, starting with your friend here.” 

Luke felt the distinct shape of a blaster being pressed against his back.

“You don’t want to do that,” Raven warned, raising her gold lightsaber.

“Don’t I?” The man just laughed. Around them the crowd had stopped watching the bot fight and was now watching them. 

“No,” a new, but familiar voice said, low and dangerous. “You really don’t.”

Luke reluctantly turned his head to see his father stepping into the circle that had formed around Luke and his friends. He looked murderous. When he caught Luke’s eye, Luke felt him do a mental assessment of his condition. Luke offered an apologetic smile, which his father only met with a deeper scowl.

 _Well,_ Luke thought, _so much for this exit being discreet._

“Oh, and another Jedi!” Luke’s captor exclaimed. “Was this a field trip or somethin’?”

“I’ll give you until the count of three to put the boy down,” his father said, slowly, pulling out his own saber. 

There was a whisper Luke could hear traveling through the crowd: _‘that’s Anakin Skywalker, that's the Clone War hero.’_

“I am not afraid of you, Master Jedi,” the man said, but Luke could hear the slight quaver in his voice. Although he might not have recognized him at first, it seemed he knew the name ‘Anakin Skywalker’ and the reputation that preceded him. “And you seem to have forgotten, I’ve got what you want.”

The blaster poked harder into Luke’s shoulder blade and he winced with the added pressure. 

His father took another step closer, menacingly. “If you lay one hand on that boy, there won’t be a place in the galaxy you’ll be able to hide from me. So I’ll ask you again, put down the blaster, and let go of my son.” 

Luke could feel the waves of anger and protectiveness rolling off his father, drenching everyone nearby in coldness. People in the circle were looking rightfully fearful, and the other men with blasters had lowered them, realizing they weren’t going to win this fight. It was only the guy holding Luke that was stupid enough not to surrender. 

“Your son? Well, now that does complicate-”

But his father was done playing games. He reached out the hand not gripping his lightsaber and the smuggler released Luke in favor of clawing at the invisible hand that had wrapped around his throat, gagging as he tried to take in air. 

Abeckla dove forward and grabbed Luke, pulling him over to where his friends were standing. 

His father was stalking slowly forward toward the man, who sank to his knees as his face turned redder and redder. 

“I don’t play games when it comes to my children’s lives,” his father warned, getting into the man’s face as he continued to sputter for air. Just before he looked like he was going to pass out, his father released his grip and the man fell over, coughing and gasping. 

His father straightened up and turned Luke and his friends. Luke couldn’t return his eye contact, he was embarrassed. And, a little remorseful for breaking the rules and being caught. 

“Padawans, we’re leaving. Come on,” he ordered, sternly. 

Luke’s friends scurried quickly past his father and toward the exit. People parted around them like they were on fire, which was probably a good thing. Luke was pretty sure his father would kill the next person that so much as stepped on Luke’s toe. 

His father followed behind them and as soon as the door of the warehouse swung shut behind them, Luke braced himself for the lecture. 

Except one didn’t come.

They all stood in silence while his father’s heavy breathing returned to normal.  
“My speeder is around the corner,” his father said, shortly, “we’re going back to the Temple.”

The ride back to the Jedi Temple was deathly silent. Usually, his father would tell jokes and impress his friends with stories from the Clone Wars or embarrass him with baby stories. Tonight, there was none of that. His father didn’t even turn on the radio, they flew in tense silence until the speeder settled on the landing platform. 

“Thank you, Master Skywalker,” Abeckla mumbled as she opened the back door of the speeder. Raven and Cliko quietly said their thanks as well. 

“You’re welcome,” he replied, tersely. They all seemed relieved to not be receiving a lecture. “I’ll be talking to all of your Masters tomorrow about what happened tonight. I suggest you all run ahead and maybe give them a heads up? I’m sure they’d rather hear about it from you before me.”

Collectively, they all paled and took off for the Temple entrance at a dead sprint. Luke watched them disappear inside with envy. He knew he wasn’t going to get off so lightly. 

Once they were gone from sight, Luke returned his gaze to his lap. He waited for his father to either say something or pull away from the Temple or really do anything except clench the wheel in front of him so tightly Luke thought he was going to dent it. He figured he wouldn’t be spending the night with Obi-wan anymore.

Which reminded him, “I need to call Obi-wan. He told me I could sleepover, he’ll be worried if I don’t show and don’t call.”

His father barked out a humorless laugh. “God forbid we make Obi-wan worried about where you are. Where was that thoughtfulness when you were betraying his trust in you?”

Luke didn’t reply. He didn’t know what to say to make his father not angry, didn’t know how to defend himself when he knew he was in the wrong. 

He settled with doing the obvious thing first. 

“I’m sorry,” he said, quietly. 

“Are you really?” His father challenged, his voice rising at the end. He wasn’t yelling yet, but he was working up to it. “Or are you just sorry that you got caught?”

Luke felt a little indignant at the implication that he couldn’t recognize when he was wrong.

“I said I was sorry,” he said, less quietly.

His father turned to stare at him, like he’d grown three heads. 

“Well, I’m sorry if I can’t always trust when you mean something you say,” he said, “given that you told Obi-wan you were just going to get burgers and then I found you at an undercity bot fight about to get shot in the back by a blaster!”

Now his father was yelling.

“Who told you we were getting burgers?”

“Obi-wan,” his father stated. “He didn’t want your mother and I to worry when you didn’t come home tonight. I can’t imagine what he would say if he knew where you had gone instead.”

“We did go get burgers first,” Luke tried.

“What, then slipped off the sidewalk and fell into the bot fighting arena?” His father asked incredulously,“do you understand how irresponsible it was for you to go down there? How reckless and thick-headed?”

“Yes,” Luke mumbled. 

“ _Do you?_ ”

Luke gritted his teeth. “Yes,” he said louder. 

“Good, because if I ever find you’ve betrayed your Master’s trust and are somewhere you aren’t supposed to be again, you’re going to be grounded until the next millenia.”

With that, his father started the engine and flew off into Coruscant traffic, heading for home. At the perfect time too, Luke had noticed some people from in the hangar had started to peak out to see what all the commotion was. Luke hated being the center of attention and he certainly would be if the whole Temple heard him getting lectured by his father out in the open. 

They didn’t talk again until they had parked in the private garage at their apartment. Luke waited for his father to open his door first. 

But he just sighed and ran a hand through his hair, pushing it out of his face. He seemed calmer than he had at the Temple.

“Listen,” his father said, “you’re still in trouble, but your mother doesn’t need to know about this if you’ll promise me that you’ll never go into the undercity or to fight again.”

This was worlds away from the grounding of the millenia his father had just been promising and the whiplash of the mood change left Luke gaping, until a lightbulb clicked on and he realized why.

Luke smirked and crossed his arms over his chest. 

“Mom doesn’t know you were at the bot fight either, does she?”

His father’s ears turned red, the same Luke’s did when he was embarrassed. 

“I-,” he sputtered, “I can go wherever I like, I don’t need your mother’s approval on my whereabouts.”

“Uh-huh,” Luke said, full on smiling at his father’s bantha in a headlight expression. “Then let’s go tell her where you just found me, I’m sure she’d love to hear about what you thought about the fight.”

Luke opened his speeder door, but his father pulled it closed again with the Force. 

“Alright listen here,” he started, “If we both go in there and tell your beautiful mother where we’ve been it won’t end well for either of us. I’ll have to sleep on the couch until die probably and I don’t want to do that-”

Luke laughed.

“-and you’ll wish it was only the millennia I said I’d ground you for when she’s done with you.”

Luke stopped laughing and gulped. 

“Okay,” he agreed, “deal.”

They shook on it and got out of the speeder. 

His mother met them in the living room with a smile and kissed them both. She asked where they had been and believed his father when he lied and said tinkering in the Jedi hangar.

The rest of the night passed by uneventfully and as Luke got ready for bed, he felt like, despite the initial lecture from his father, he had really been spared what could have been a life ending grounding.

His parents took his safety very seriously, and he understood why, really he did. 

Luke took fresh pajamas out of his dresser and couldn’t help but stare at the photo that rested on top: him, a decade younger, sitting on a picnic blanket in the Lake Country of Naboo eating an ice lolly, most of it running down his face. 

And her. 

The photo was taken the day before she disappeared- was kidnapped right from their bedroom while their mother slept down the hall. 

Luke picked up the photo and touched his fingers to the glass where her smiling face was.

Leia, his twin sister who had been gone just over ten years and whose kidnapping had turned his parent’s into the overbearing, overprotective people that they were now. 

The reason he never gave his parents, or Obi-wan, or Ahsoka, grief over their endless rules of where he could and couldn’t go without them for fear that he’d be snatched up right from under their noses, too.

Luke was still staring at the photo when someone knocked on his bedroom room. He quickly set it down, and spun toward the entrance. 

“Come in.”

As he expected, his father came in slowly, shutting the door behind him. 

“I just came to say goodnight,” he said.

“Good-night,” Luke answered, walking toward his bed and sitting on the edge facing away from his father. He had forgiven his father for yelling, he knew he deserved it. But he was still a teenager and he was embarrassed about the whole affair, and a little guilty. 

“Luke…”

The mattress dipped and a hand rested on Luke’s shoulder. 

“Although you deserved it,” his father began bluntly, “I’m sorry I yelled at you earlier.”

“I know,” Luke sighed, turning to face him. “I really did mean it when I said I was sorry earlier. It won’t happen again.”

His father nodded, he looked like he wanted to say more but was unsure about how to start. Luke waited while he gathered his thoughts. 

“I know we-me, your mother, Obi-wan- hold you pretty close sometimes, and that can feel suffocating and so out of frustration and teenage rebellion, it feels like the right thing for you to do is to push back against those barriers even harder,” he said. “But it’s only because we love you, and if something happened to you, I don’t know how we’d survive it. Not after your sister. It would ruin me.”

Suddenly guilt flooded Luke’s body and the high he had been feeling since the decision to act on a moment of teenage rebellion left him and he felt empty, coldness in its place.

He wondered absently if Leia would like the adrenaline of bot fights. 

Tears filled the corners of his eyes with the knowledge that he’d never get an answer to that question. 

Two arms grabbed him and Luke hugged his father back just as tightly. 

“I’m sorry,” he repeated, pushing to his father across their bond how much he meant it. His father acknowledged him with a nudge and held him tighter.

When he pulled back, his father’s eyes were red rimmed, but dry. 

“Get some sleep, young one, you still have lightsaber training with Obi-wan tomorrow morning.”

Luke groaned and flopped onto his back. His father chuckled at his dismay.

“Yeah, I remember how tough those early morning sessions used to be,” his father sympathized, moving toward the door. “One would think he’d get slower with age, but if anything I swear he’s only more agile now.”

Luke chuckled at his father’s head shaking bewilderment. 

He paused at the door.

“I love you, Luke.”

“I love you too, dad.”

His father smiled and left the room after one last look at the same photo Luke had been holding earlier.

Luke sat on his bed for a moment longer, thinking of nothing and everything all at once. He pressed a hand under his shirt to the long scar across his stomach. He tried not to think about _her._

That night when Luke finally fell asleep, he dreamt of ghosts. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I didn't want to start this until I was finished with Bringing the Line, but I couldn't stop thinking about it so I decided what the heck and wrote the first chapter.
> 
> Thanks for reading! Let me know what you like :)
> 
> As always you can find me on tumblr as @laheyy
> 
> -Mara


	2. Reports

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Luke has a nightmare, makes tea, and has a talk with his Master

* * *

_Luke could hear someone screaming. He tried to get out of bed but the sheets had turned to restraints and he couldn’t move, couldn’t even sit up. He struggled against them as the screaming around him intensified, making him wish he could cover his ears to stop it from piercing his ears._

_From what he could see of the ceiling he knew he wasn’t in his bedroom on Coruscant, or his bedroom at the Jedi Temple. He lifted his head as far as his restraints would allow and examined the room. He found he recognized it. It was his old bedroom on Naboo, the one he shared with Leia before the kidnapping- the one that he vehemently refused to sleep in after that night._

_Looking around the room as much as his horizontal position would allow, Luke realized he wasn’t alone. There was someone in a second bed, but they didn’t appear to be awake._

_“Hey,” he called out, “hey!”_

_The person didn’t move._

_The echoing, pained scream continued from somewhere Luke couldn’t see, although it didn’t feel like it was coming from someone specific, it seemed to drifting in from all around them from a place Luke couldn’t pin down._

_Despite the overwhelming nature of the screaming, there was also the sound of slow, shuffling footsteps approaching the bedroom from down the hall. Luke knew the way both of his parent’s sounded as they walked; his mother light and quick; his father deliberate, but lithe. This was neither of them._

_“Hey!” He tried again to wake up the figure sleeping next to him. “Wake up!”_

_They needed to find a way out of here before whoever was in the hallway reached the door!_

_The old-fashioned knob on the bedroom door creaked as it was turned._

_At the sound, the figure in the bed beside him stirred. Luke felt his breathing quicken._

_“We need to leave here, now!”_

_The head on the pillow turned to face him and all Luke could see in the dimness of the moonlit room were two yellow eyes staring back at him._

_The screaming intensified and Luke’s own screams joined them as someone else’s terror mingled with his own._

_“Luke, Luke!”_

* * *

Someone was shaking his shoulder. Luke gasped as he opened his eyes to the brightness of his bedroom on Coruscant. 

“Luke!” His mother urged, shaking him again. 

“Mom,” he tried weakly, his voice raspy from sleep. Or from screaming, Luke was pretty positive he’d been screaming aloud, as he was known to do in the throes of a nightmare.

“Are you alright?” She asked, using a gentle hand to wipe sweat from his brow. She let her hand slide down his face until she was cupping his cheek. Luke leaned into her touch as his heart rate returned to normal. “Were you having a nightmare?”

Luke just nodded, feeling a little too unsettled to try talking again. 

His mother pursed her lips before asking, tentatively, “Was it about Naboo?”

It wasn’t a secret that he had nightmares, his father blamed himself for passing them down the gene pool. It also wasn’t a secret that they got significantly worse after his sister was kidnapped. The child psychologist his parents had taken him to had said it was ‘trauma manifesting in dreams and there was nothing to be done but talk about them and wait it out.’ The Jedi Mind Healer they had visited next (at his father’s insistence) had said the same thing but added that the loss of a twin to a Force Sensitive was almost akin to losing a limb. It would take a while to not feel the pain of her phantom presence, his aura reaching out for hers and being left wanting. 

Luke remembered very little about this time. But the nightmares eventually subsided from every night to only happening every once in a while. Now they only occurred when Luke was particularly stressed or thinking a lot about his sister. 

Luke glanced at the photo on his dresser before nodding in answer to his mother’s question. 

She pulled him into a hug that Luke returned shakely. 

“I’m sorry,” she whispered into his hair, “that you keep reliving that horrible night over and over again.” 

Luke didn’t say anything because the dream wasn’t really about that night, not in the way it usually was, but he didn’t want her to know that. During the actual night, the intruder had come in through their window, not the bedroom door. And, he and Leia had bunk beds- him on the top, her on the bottom. That's why Luke always thought that the intruder took Leia first, she was easier to reach. 

But this dream was different in ways that didn’t make sense; he wasn’t sure what that meant. 

After a moment, his mother pulled back. 

“I have to go to the Senate early this morning and wanted to see if you wanted a ride to the Temple?” She took in his sweaty pajamas and flushed face and added, “but maybe we should call Obi-wan and tell him you aren’t feeling it this morning.”

“No,” Luke said, quickly, “I’m okay, I can go. I’ll get ready quickly and I’ll meet you at the speeder.”

She looked at him skeptically. “Are you sure?”  
  
Luke forced a smile. “Yeah, gimme like five minutes to get dressed.”

“Okay, sweetheart,” she said, leaving him to get ready. “Grab an energy bar on the way.”

Luke splashed water on his face in the refresher in hopes to calm his nerves and shake the rest of the nightmare away. He felt completely unrested, but as much as he wanted to stay home and sleep the morning away, he hated feeling like he got special treatment from his parents and Obi-wan. 

So, he quickly threw on his robes, grabbed his bag with his class books, and met his mom on the landing platform in record time. As soon as he closed the door behind him, she took off toward the Temple. 

Luke recounted the quietness of their apartment as he’d quickly grabbed his things and wondered aloud, “where’s dad?” 

“Already left. Emergency council stuff he said,” his mother answered casually. “Did you get an energy bar?”  
  
“Yep,” Luke said, crinkling the plastic wrapping so she could verify it without looking away from the traffic. He didn’t open it or make any move to eat it. He planned on throwing the bar into his bag and forgetting about it as soon as he was out from under his mom’s watchful gaze. His stomach was still turning uneasily.

“Good,” she replied. “Are you sure you want to go? Obi-wan will understand if you ask to skip a day.”  
  
Luke sighed. “I’m sure, mom. I’m fine.”

“Really? Because you look tired.”

“I’m okay, really, it was just a bad dream. I can’t let having bad dreams sometimes stop me from doing stuff. I have to learn to deal with them.”

His mother looked at him briefly, a proud smile on her face, before she reached out to run a hand through his hair. 

“You are so much like your father,” she said, fondly. Luke felt pride fill his chest at that. 

Before long, their speeder pulled out of traffic and down onto the Temple landing platform where a few people were milling around, beginning their morning routines. Luke gave his mother a quick goodbye hug before jumping out of the speeder and heading past security into the Temple. 

Everything was quiet as Luke walked through the Temple halls, waving at the occasional Jedi that was awake this early. There was something different about the Temple when most of its residents were still asleep. It was like the Temple itself was asleep and projecting peace out to all those inside, reflecting the soft, dreamy feelings of its patrons. It had to do with the Force nexus the Temple was built on, Luke knew from class, the Temple and it’s patrons fed energy to each other. As he walked leisurely to Obi-wan’s quarters, he basked in the serenity that symbiotic relationship created.

Even before he entered, Luke could sense the apartment was empty. He went inside and put his bag down, going to the small kitchenette to see if there was tea on. 

There wasn’t. Luke frowned, Obi-wan always had tea in the morning, he always made time for it. 

Luke reached out with the Force, looking for Obi-wan or his father. Easily, he could tell they were both still in the Temple and somewhere nearby.

 _Probably still at the council meeting,_ he thought, setting a kettle of water to boil. He could have tea ready for when they returned. Luke sat at the table and tried to do some homework while he waited, but found himself dozing off instead. 

He teetered on the edge of an uneasy dream that didn’t really make sense, full of bright flashes and someone laughing menacingly in his ear. The screaming from his nightmare was back and getting louder and louder until it was all Luke could hear. Using his last bit of consciousness, Luke pulled himself out of the dream in a desperate attempt to make the screaming stop. He practically flew out of his chair at the kitchen table at the same time that the door to the suite slid open and someone came in. 

Luke could still hear the screaming and whipped his head around wildly, looking for it’s source. He found it coming from the teapot that was whistling sharply on the gasser and Luke jumped up to take it off, his hands shaking slightly. 

Right then, Obi-wan came into view. He took in Luke’s appearance, and Luke figured he probably was a sight- sweaty, breathing heavy, and frantically turning off the gasser-flame before he burned the Temple down.

Obi-wan took a beat before he spoke.

“Good morning, Luke,” Obi-wan said, simply. 

“Hi, Master,” Luke answered, setting the kettle down on a trivet. He gestured at it lamely when Obi-wan just continued to stare at him, slightly bemused. “I made tea for us.”

Obi-wan laughed and came further into the kitchen. “I can see that. Sit,” he instructed. “I’ll get the cups.”

Luke did as he was told and slumped back down in his chair while Obi-wan finished preparing the tea. He brought everything over to the table, including a small plate of scones that he pushed in Luke’s direction. 

“Sleep well?” He asked, pouring them both cups of tea.  
  
Luke gave him an unimpressed stare.

“Did my mother call you?”

Obi-wan shrugged innocently. “Perhaps. Or perhaps it’s because I found you sleeping on my kitchen table so soon after waking up.”

“Oh,” Luke said, “yeah. I just closed my eyes for a second, sorry.”

“No harm done,” Obi-wan said, sipping his tea. “I was grateful to have some tea waiting for me when I returned. I, although unintentionally, had an early morning as well.”  
  
Luke perked up at the reference to the emergency Council meeting. His father rarely discussed Council matters with him, but Obi-wan could be persuaded to.

“Was it really an emergency meeting? My dad was gone super early this morning.”  
  
Obi-wan took another sip of his tea and nodded. “Yes. He was quite grumpy when he arrived.”

“What was it about?” Luke asked, eagerly. 

His Master paused, considering the question. Luke knew that if it was something serious, he wouldn’t get the full details, but he hoped Obi-wan would tell him something. 

“The Council heard some rumours of violence coming from a mid-rim system. We needed to pick a few Jedi to send to investigate.”

“What kind of rumours? Who are they sending? Are they sending you?” Luke was excited, if Obi-wan went that meant Luke would go and he loved going off-world with Obi-wan. They rarely got to go on missions to other planets and Luke was pretty sure that had something to do with his father, although he’d never admit it.

Obi-wan chuckled. “Slow down, little one. It’s just someone causing trouble, nothing too serious as to require a Master Jedi. We decided to send two young knights. For their first mission after completing the trials.”

Luke deflated. “Oh.”

“It would have been a monotonous journey, Luke,” Obi-wan offered, sensing his disappointment.

“Going off-world is never monotonous,” he argued, “all of my friends have been on missions lately, even just diplomatic ones, and we never get assigned anything. I’m getting bored on Coruscant.”

“Bored on Coruscant? How can you be bored on Coruscant when there are so many bot fights to sneak off too?”

Luke choked on his scone and whipped his head toward Obi-wan, horrified, as he attempted to clear the pastry pieces from his airway. Obi-wan just sipped his tea and looked at him expectantly, but Luke didn’t know what to say. He expected to have this conversation with Obi-wan today, but knowing it was coming didn’t make it any easier. 

About as much as he didn’t want to disappoint his parents, he didn’t want to disappoint Obi-wan. 

Because even though Obi-wan was his Jedi Master, before that he had been almost like his uncle; such a stable part of Luke’s childhood that he couldn’t remember a time when Obi-wan hadn’t been there for birthdays and holidays. There was a guest room at their home on Naboo that was pretty much just Obi-wan’s room, no other guests stayed in there. Obi-wan and his father fought like brothers and made up after just as quick and Luke considered him the first person he'd call in an emergency. It had been one of the happiest days when Luke had been told that the Council had allowed him to be Obi-wan’s padawan. 

Luke didn’t like feeling like he let him down. 

“You know you’re in trouble right?” Obi-wan started, calmly. For some reason, Obi-wan’s quiet disappointment was just as bad as his dads yelling, maybe worse.

“Yes,” Luke answered softly.

“And you know that I’m very disappointed in how you betrayed my trust in giving you permission to go with your friends and that you need to re-earn that trust?”

“Yes,” Luke repeated, bowing his head down. 

“Look at me, Luke,” Obi-wan said. Luke raised his eyes to Obi-wan’s kind, honest ones. He was upset, but not permanently. “I am disappointed, but more importantly I’m glad you’re okay. That’s what’s more important.”

“I’m sorry,” Luke said. “I didn’t plan on lying to you when I asked you if I could go to Dex’s, Cliko suggested it and then it just sort of happened. I didn’t think it would hurt and we would be back by curfew, but things got out of hand really quickly. I promise I didn’t mean to disappoint you, I just thought I could handle it. I'm so sorry, Master.”

Obi-wan nodded, accepting his apology. Luke felt infinitely lighter. 

“I won’t do it again.”

“Oh of course you won’t,” Obi-wan laughed. “Because if you do, you’ll find that there are worse things than you having two weeks of morning shifts at the Temple gate.”

“But, I don’t have two weeks of gate duty,” Luke said, confused.

“You do now,” Obi-wan replied, to Luke’s budding horror. “My favorite punishment back in the day for your father after he did something stupid and reckless. It took you twice as long for me to break it out, I’m almost proud.”

Luke groaned. When Luke meant he liked being at the Temple in the morning, he didn’t mean standing guard at its visitor gate. That was always boring and horrible, no matter what time of day it was. Padawan’s were always trying to trade away those unpopular morning shifts. 

“Now,” Obi-wan said, standing up and transforming into a more serious Master Jedi. “Let’s head to the gym, I want to start with some standard exercises. Today we’re working on your fluid riposte, so we’d better get a move on before I get called away to another meeting…”

* * *

Only a few steps into the library, Luke felt someone nudge him across the Force. He looked in the direction it came from and saw Cliko waving him over from the across the room. His friends were all sitting together, in varying states of focus as they presumably worked on homework. Luke, too, was here to work on an essay Obi-wan had assigned him on dueling forms. 

However, he didn’t move to join them right away. He wanted to go over, but Luke was worried they would be angry at him for the night before. Technically, if he hadn’t been there, they wouldn’t have gotten caught. His father probably wouldn’t have noticed them and they wouldn’t all have been in trouble. Luke debated pretending he didn’t notice them and going to a table far in the back. 

But before he could run and hide, Cliko nudged him harder and made an overly dramatic _‘get over here’_ arm motion that nearly sent Abeckla’s stack of datapads careening off the edge of the table. She scowled at him as she righted the almost toppled tower and Cliko, for once, managed to look admonished. Luke put a hand up to stifle his laugh so he didn’t get reprimanded by one of the librarians. Raven looked up at from the data pad she had been writing intentently on to give him a smile and wave him over less melodramatically than Cliko had. 

Perhaps they weren’t mad at him, they weren’t acting like it if they were, Luke thought. He decided to join them and picked his way across the Archives slowly, trying not to disturb the other Jedi working intently. 

The spot next to Raven was open so Luke placed his bag over the back of the chair and sat down uncertainly.

“Hey Luke,” Cliko said, leaning back in his chair casually and unconcerned with the work in front of him. Out of the three people already sitting at the table, Cliko’s datapad was suspiciously the least filled with data. “How’s it hanging?”

“Fine,” Luke shrugged. “How are you guys?”

“Good, all the things considered,” Raven answered, not looking up from the diagram she was labeling. 

Luke winced, figuring she was referencing last night's incident. “I’m really sorry about last night. How mad were your Masters after my dad talked to them?”

Cliko shrugged, grinning a little. 

“Your dad didn’t show this morning, so we’re all off the hook. I mean, Master Clairo was a little upset last night and threatened to make me wait another month to take my speeder license exam, but I managed to convince her it wasn’t that bad and then she didn’t get a chance to hear otherwise from your dad.”

“Same,” said Abeckla. “I was so worried all night about it I could barely sleep, but then he never stopped by this morning.”

Most of the time Luke really liked having Obi-wan as his mentor, but other times he realized his life would be easier if his parents and his Master weren’t such close friends, otherwise his master might not have had a chance to talk to his father this morning either. Luke sighed. He knew why his friends hadn’t received a visit from his father and were in the clear. 

“Ugh, you’re all so lucky there was an emergency Council meeting this morning.”

“Emergency meeting?” Cliko gasped, leaning in low to the table so as to not be overheard. 

Luke leaned in, too. “Yeah. I woke up and my dad was already gone. Obi-wan and I had sparring this morning but I ended up waiting a while for him because when I got here, he was still in the meeting.”

The girls leaned in close now, too, intrigued with the conversation. 

“Did he tell you what it was about?” Abeckla asked, her bright eyes fixed on him.

“Obi-wan didn’t say much, he just said they received worrying reports on a mid-rim planet and were sending two knights to check it out.”

Raven tapped her finger on the table. “Worrying reports? What could that mean?”

“Maybe an old Seperatist leader is trying to restart the war,” Cliko proposed. Luke thought he was little too excited at that idea.

“They would have sent a Jedi Master if it were that serious. Right? Like your dad, Luke, or Master Kenobi. Someone who fought in the war,” Abeckla said. 

“Oh man, Luke, that would have been so cool if you got to go!” Cliko said, loudly causing a few other archive occupants to shush them. Cliko winced and then continued quieter. “Imagine getting to fight a real B-1 battle droid.”

“No, B-1’s were punks,” Abeckla cut in, “imagine getting to fight a B-2 super battle droid. We just learned about those in my level IV mechanics lab. Their armour class is crazy impressive.”

“You’re both wrong,” Raven protested, holding up the datapad she had been labeling with an image of a droideka on it. “These destroyers were some of the deadliest droids in the whole war. They had two-way twin blasters and their deflector shields could rebuff lightsabers.”

While his friends hotly debated which of the old war droids were the coolest, Luke couldn’t help but wonder what the knights would find on their mission. What if Obi-wan had been sent to investigate, would he be getting to fight battle droids right now instead of doing homework and wondering what he was going to have for lunch? That seemed way more his style. 

Luke was pulled out of his day dreaming by Cliko bringing him back into the conversation. 

“Luke, what do you think was deadlier, the B-3 or the B-2?” Cliko asked. 

“Uhh,” he tried to regain his focus and remember anything he knew about either droid. “B-3 was deadlier, but it was really hard to mass produce and suffered repeated malfunctions to its density projector. They never could get it right. So I’d say B-2 models. For efficiency versus cost, and of course, Abeckla is right, their armour is crazy strong.”  
  
Abeckla stared at him. “Do _you_ want to write my mechanics essay, Luke?” 

Luke smiled shyly, “unfortunately, I have my own essay to write for Obi-wan on dueling. He got called away before we could finish our lesson and I think he thought this was a fair trade.”

“Bummer,” Cliko said. “Speaking of sparring, does anyone want to spar early tomorrow? I have a free block and would rather spend it on the mat then in the greenhouse which is where Clairo wants me to be. If I have to name one more obscure leaf and it’s properties this week I’ll scream.”  
  
“I’m free,” Raven said. 

“Me too,” Abeckla added. 

“Luke? We could do two on two.”  
  
Luke was about to say yes when he remembered the other thing Obi-wan had assigned him this morning. 

“I can’t,” Luke bemoaned, “I have two weeks of morning shifts at the Temple Gate starting tomorrow- courtesy of my dad actually getting to talk to my Master this morning.”

His friends all groaned in sympathy. 

“We’ll send a prayer up to the Force for you,” Cliko said, seriously. “You’ll be in our thoughts and prayers during your community service.”

Abeckla smacked him on the arm and Luke just laughed at his friends’ antics. For all his worrying, they hadn’t been mad at all.


	3. Stow Away

The two next two week were some of the longest of Luke’s life. Every morning he would get up before sun rise, go relieve the young knights (who were even unluckier than him) that had been assigned the overnight shift, and stand, half asleep at the Temple gate with another half asleep Padawan until almost midmorning. That part wouldn’t have been so bad if he didn’t then have to attend a full day of classes and training. He was exhausted by dinner time, but couldn’t even crash early because he usually had homework or extra training with Obi-wan. And when Luke would finally lay his head down, it wouldn’t be for a full, undisturbed night of sleep. 

He was having nightmares again; disorienting, confusing nightmares that were different every night, but were always a swirling mess of someone screaming just out of view and gold eyes flashing at him from the darkness. When he inevitably awoke himself up either by screaming, or from thrashing about, he would lay in his bed, breathing heavy and feeling a lingering coldness in his bones. He was both sweating profusely and shivering in his sheets. They weren’t like any nightmares he’d ever experienced and as hard as he tried, he couldn’t parse any meaning from them. 

Usually, the resurgence of his nightmares was something he would tell his parents, or that they’d notice before he had a chance, but they also seemed to be busier and more stressed than usual- his mother with Senate elections and his father with something Council related that he wouldn’t share, but was causing him, and Obi-wan, to be more on edge as the days progressed.

So Luke tried to cope with the inconvenience of these dreams alone and found himself miserable while he figured out exactly how to do that.

As Luke stood dozing at the gate on his last morning of punishment, he thanked the Force afternoon classes had been canceled for the day and was already planning the nap he was going to take after his shift ended. He was counting down the seconds on his chrono.

Luke was busy staring holes into the ground when he felt someone approaching the gate. He didn’t feel like dealing with visitors right then, and so he didn’t look up to greet them as they approached, leaving the other Padawan, Kali, a girl a few years older than him, to deal with the guest. 

But before Kali could greet the approaching visitor, a familiar voice called out.

“I didn’t know they were letting zombies guard the gates now. Did the Council run out of _living_ Padawans?” 

Luke snapped his head up, an involuntary smile spreading across his face.

“Ahsoka!”

He rushed forward and Ahsoka opened her arms, anticipating the hug before he crashed into her.

They held each other tightly for a moment before she pulled back and frowned at him. 

“You look terrible, junior,” she said, touching the skin beneath his eyes where he knew dark smudges had formed over the past two weeks. 

“Thanks,” Luke answered, sarcastically. “When did you get back?”

“Just now,” she said, throwing an arm around his shoulder and leading him back to the gate. “Your dad recalled me, I’m on my way to see him but I figured I’d come see you first. I heard you’re in the doghouse.”

Luke frowned. “Why do you all gossip behind my back? It really wasn’t that big of a deal.”

Ahsoka just grinned. “Golden boy sneaking off to an illegal bot fight and only being caught because his father was also sneaking off to the same illegal bot fight? That’s the most Skywalker thing I’ve ever heard. Of course I was going to hear about it.”

Luke pouted. It was impossible to keep anything private in this family.

“Honestly, I was surprised when your dad explained what happened,” Ahsoka continued. “You’re a Skywalker, so you get into your fair share of limit-pushing situations, but you’re not usually one for sneaking out like that. I wanted to see if you were okay.”

Luke glanced over at Kali, who was doing her best to seem like she wasn’t eavesdropping. He couldn’t tell if she was actually listening or not. 

“That’s why I did it. All my friends think I’m this boring, goody-goody who has to ask his parents before he can do anything. Nobody else has to do that, they’re just allowed to go places and their Masters trust them!” 

Ahsoka lowered her voice, sympathetically. “I don’t think it’s about trust, Luke, I’m sure they trust you to make smart decisions.” She paused, hesitating a moment before continuing, “I think we both know it’s-”

“I know why it’s this way,” Luke said sharply, cutting her off. Ahsoka gave him a pitying look and he hated it. “I just wish it wasn’t.”

He would have been stupid to not know everything his parents did was because of Leia. 

Because they were scared of losing him the way they lost her and he understood their apprehension, he really did, especially when he was younger. They had no idea why their only daughter had been kidnapped from her bed, and no way to know if their only son was still a target. But ten years later without an incident, had convinced Luke wasn’t in danger anymore. Plue, he was growing up, he didn’t know how to make them understand he wanted to be able to do more, to see more of the galaxy. Luke didn’t like living his whole life in fearful hesitation. 

“When you were my age, did you have to ask my dad before going anywhere?” Luke was pretty sure he knew the answer, but he asked anyway. 

Ahsoka thought for a moment. “He liked to be informed when I was going to be gone for a while, but usually not, no. But, Luke, when I was fifteen, I was fighting in a galactic war. The standards were different. It would have been pretty hypocritical if he wouldn't let me go to the park on my own, but then turned around and let me fight battle droids.”

Luke leaned back against the gate, “I don’t know how to prove to them that I’m not going to disappear if I go to the park without asking them. I know the bot fight thing wasn’t good, but it was a lapse in judgement, y’know? I was just frustrated with how overbearing they can be.”

Ahsoka nodded, sympathetically. “Try talking to them, it might take some convincing but your parents are usually reasonable people, or at least Padmé is. They’ll listen to you.”

She rested a comforting hand on his shoulder and squeezed before stepping away to go inside the Temple. She looked back at him once more.

“I don’t know where the Council is going to send me, but maybe I can convince your wardens to let you come with me, as a training mission.”

Luke perked up. “Really?”

“Yeah,” Ahsoka said, “It’s been awhile since we’ve hung out, and your parents and Obi-wan trust me. I’m sure they’d be okay with it. Plus, it’ll be good for you to get away from the Temple and all these stuffy adults for a bit, I think”

“You’re an adult, too,” Luke pointed out, smiling. She hated when he called her old (even if he was just joking).

“Hush,” she said stepping inside the Temple, “or we won’t go flying later.”

Luke waved and then she was gone. He couldn’t wipe the smile off his face, even as he continued to stand bored out of his mind at the gate. He loved when Ahsoka was at the Temple, she didn’t spend a lot of time on Coruscant these days and he missed her when she was gone. She didn’t treat him like a child and she spoke like they were the equals. All of the Younglings at the Temple looked up to her in awe and wanted to be _her_ Padawan although she’d never taken one. Luke always wondered why. 

If anyone could convince his parents and Master to let him go off planet, it would be her.

It wasn’t long after that Luke and Kali were relieved of duty, and Luke wasted no time in disappearing to his bedroom in Obi-wan’s apartment to take a nap. He threw his stuff down and didn’t even bother removing his shoes before he fell face down on his bed and fell asleep. He was so exhausted he didn’t even dream. 

* * *

When Luke awoke, the first thing he noticed was that the light filtering in his window was now almost completely gone, meaning he’d slept pretty much the whole day away. 

The second was that he could hear hushed, urgent whispering coming from the common space. Luke climbed off his bed slowly, careful not to make any noise and tip-toed to his door. He pressed his ear against the cool durasteel and listened. 

A quick touch of the Force confirmed for him that it was Obi-wan and his father. It wasn’t odd to find them together during the day, they’d sometimes take lunch together or go over reports. What was odd was the weird way they were whispering in their own apartment, like they were worried someone was going to overhear them. 

He tried to make out what they were saying, but it was hard through the thick metal, only fragments of what they were saying were intelligible. 

_“… but, if somehow it is, shouldn’t we…”_

_“… not likely the Council will allow… without more insight…”_

_“…could go. I am the last person who-”_

_“No.”_

Obi-wan spoke so authoritatively, Luke felt his assertion ripple in the Force.

Both his Master and his father were on edge. From what Luke could infer from the broken bits of conversation, whatever it was the Council had been meeting day and night about wasn’t getting resolved, but getting worse. After the first meeting Obi-wan had mentioned, Luke couldn’t help but notice that those ‘emergency meetings’ started happening a lot more. His father was called away one night late after dinner and wasn’t back by the morning; twice Obi-wan had been summoned during training. 

And now they were whispering, anxious and upset, about things they wouldn’t say in front of the Council and didn’t want anyone else overhearing. 

Luke wondered if the two Jedi Knights who had been sent to investigate had brought back bad news. 

He felt a shiver travel down his spine, equal parts worry and excitement. If something was serious enough to worry the two bravest people Luke knew, then it was definitely serious. But, if both his father and Master were involved, that likely meant Luke would get to be involved as well and that was exciting news. Luke had been waiting his entire life for something big to happen. Finally, he would get to test himself against something other than training droids and other Padawan. Both his father and his Master had killed Sith Lords- Luke wanted to be remembered for something that was noteworthy, too.

When it felt like the conversation was at a lull, Luke tapped the release on his door and began making his way to the common space, anticipation humming in his veins and ready to ask about what they were discussing. The noise in the other room stopped as soon as he stepped into the short hall and when Luke rounded the corner, both his father and Obi-wan were staring at him wide-eyed. 

“Luke,” his father blurted, “I didn’t know you were here.”

“I was taking a nap.” He gestured back toward the room he came from.

“Why aren’t you in class today, young one?” Obi-wan was trying to act casual, but Luke could feel tension clouding the air between them. 

“There aren’t any. They were canceled,” Luke replied. “What are you guys talking about?”

There was no immediate answer and Luke got the feeling they were having a mental conversation before his father stepped forward. 

“Nothing important, kiddo, boring council stuff.” He ruffled Luke’s hair playfully, but Luke couldn’t be swayed.

“Was it about that mission those two Knights were sent on? Did they report back something serious?”

“How do you know about that?”

“Obi-wan told me,” Luke said, matter of factly. 

His father shot Obi-wan an unimpressed look. “Did he now?”

“Yes, because that’s what he’s supposed to do, I’m his Padawan,” Luke threw back, feeling his temper rise. He didn’t want to fight with his father, but they were dancing awfully close to all of the still smoking embers of Luke’s lingering frustrations.

“And you’re my son. I get a say in what information you’re-”

“Anakin-,” Obi-wan, who was well versed in recognizing when Skywalker tempers were beginning to fray, tried to cut in, but his father just raised a hand to silence him.

“Hold on, I’ll get to you in a minute.”

Luke rounded on him again. “Why shouldn’t I know what’s going on? Besides, everyone knows there was a secret mission, it’s not actually that much of a secret.”

“Because you’re too young-” 

“I’m fifteen!” Luke grumbled, rolling his eyes. 

“-and inexperienced-,” his father continued, raising his voice, but Luke was on a roll. This probably wasn’t the conversation Ahsoka meant when she said he should talk to his parents, but the energy in the room had risen to a boiling point and now was spilling over, perhaps had been for awhile. 

“Because you don’t let me get any experience in the field! I’ve had probably the most boring, unadventurous Jedi training ever! It’s not fair!”

“Count yourself lucky! When some Padawans were your age, they were dying in a war!” 

Obi-wan stepped between them, trying to preserve any semblance of peace. “Luke, there are things you don’t understand about why we do what we do. After your sister-”

At that, something in Luke that had been bending for a while snapped. 

“Not everything is about Leia!” He shouted, “she’s been gone ten years, but I can’t move past that because everyone always makes everything about _her_! I don’t want to be reminded every day about her! I just want to be normal, and do normal Padawan things! I want to live my life! I want my sister-”

Luke choked on his words, unable to let himself finish that sentence, and in the absence of his anger and grief there was nothing but emptiness. The room fell deadly silent. It seemed Luke’s outburst had shocked not only himself, but his father and Obi-wan as well, who just stared at him, mouths agape. 

For a moment, Luke wished he could take it back. Echoes of a deep, unhealable pain spread through his father and were almost enough to make him regret what he said. Almost. Because while it was harsh, and he never would have said it if he wasn’t so uncontrollably angry, he meant it. 

A decade had passed since Leia’s kidnapping but there wasn’t a day that went by that he wasn’t reminded of her and or of what her disappearance had changed, not just for him, but for his whole family. It’s not that Luke wanted to forget Leia, not even the slightest, he just wished everybody would try to act normal despite what happened. He also wished he hadn’t just yelled that directly into his father and Master’s faces. 

Nobody seemed to know how to respond. Luke felt his face twist up, and as hard as he pulled to keep the reins on his emotions, he couldn’t help but swipe quickly at the single tear that escaped from the corner of his eye. He turned away from them to stare into the monotony of the Coruscant skies, hoping nobody had noticed it. 

A hand settled on his shoulder and squeezed. Luke didn’t turn to look at his father and he resolutely didn’t touch their bond. He had no desire to feel anymore pain or anger than was already in himself.

“Luke,” his dad tried. 

Luke just shrugged off his hand and took a step back. His father hesitated, but didn’t try again. 

Again, they stood at an impasse. Obi-wan tried to bridge the gap.

“We should talk about this, young one,” Obi-wan said softly, “but your father and I need to leave for a meeting with Ahsoka and the Council before she departs tonight.”

Luke’s head spun toward his Master. “Ahsoka’s already leaving? Tonight?”

His father straightened up and nodded. “Yes. The Council is sending her on an assignment immediately.”

Luke hesitated. He wanted to ask about Ahsoka’s promise to take him with her, but after the fight they just had, he didn’t know if it was the time. 

However, it seemed Obi-wan could read his mind. “She did ask, Luke, if you could accompany her, but this is not a mission for Padawans. Even if Ahsoka had her own, she would not have taken them. Even if I had been assigned to this mission when your father was still my Padawan, I would not have taken him.”

Luke’s heart sunk. He wanted to push against that, just to be obstinate, but he wasn’t that type of person and he didn’t have it in his heart to fight anymore. Obi-wan was being sincere.

That didn’t mean it hurt any less. He would be left behind again, stuck on Coruscant. 

Luke just nodded, disappointedly. 

His father tried a second time to put a hand on his shoulder, and this time Luke let him. 

“I know you’re disappointed, son. And you’re right, we should have a talk about what’s upsetting you,” His father’s tone was sincere. “But, I’m sorry, right now Obi-wan and I really have to go. Go home and see your mother, tell her I’ll be late for dinner, and when we’re done here, Obi-wan and I will come to the apartment and we’ll all sit down together to talk. Sound okay?”

Luke nodded and then after a final hug from his father, Luke was alone again. He gathered his things and took his time walking through the halls of the Temple. 

As he made his way to the hangar to say good-bye to Ahsoka before she left, he thought about his father’s promise. It sounded appealing, and exactly what he wanted: to talk to his parents and Obi-wan about how he felt smothered by their rules, but he found himself doubtful about what would actually change. 

Could his parents actually be convinced to be less overprotective? It wasn’t in their nature to be less than intense about things that they loved and guarded over. Any new freedom he was allowed would be partnered with an equal amount of fretting, which Luke disliked just as much. 

As he entered the hangar, Luke spotted Ahsoka’s ship and made his way over to it. Ahsoka herself wasn’t anywhere to be found, but Ro’vena, the Temple’s chief mechanic, was standing beside the open ramp poking at a datapad. 

She looked up and waved as Luke came within view. 

“Hey, Luke, what’s up?” 

Luke sat down heavily on a nearby crate and shrugged. “Nothing. Where’s Ahsoka?”

“She’s probably still with the Council, although she’s scheduled to leave in about an hour so I’m sure she’ll be here soon. Aiming to say good-bye?”

Luke nodded. 

“I’m sure she’ll appreciate that. It’s a shame she’s leaving so soon after she got back,” Ro'vena said. She looked around and then leaned closer to Luke before whispering, “I heard it’s a secret mission.”

Luke smiled a little, conspiratorially. He liked Ro’vena, she knew a lot about mechanics and never shooed him away when he asked a lot of questions about what she was working on. Plus, she was always good for some light, temple gossip.

“Really?” Luke asked. 

Ro'vena nodded. “Don’t tell anyone I told you this, but I heard all this fuss is because of a Sith Lord.”

Luke’s jaw dropped. “A real Sith Lord?”

“Yeah,” she continued, “there have been some reports of something or someone terrorizing some mid-rim planets. Some accounts say the assailant was using a red laser sword. Now who does that sound like?”

Luke couldn’t believe it.

A _Sith Lord._

No wonder his father and Obi-wan had been so tense. The Sith had been gone for fifteen years. Not since his father killed Count Dooku and Master Windu gave his life to kill Darth Sidious had there been any reports of Sith activity in the galaxy. The Jedi monitored any rumours closely, even if it appeared unlikely to be true. If the Council had sent knights _and_ now Ahsoka, Luke wondered how serious the situation might actually be. 

“It could be nothing,” Ro'vena said, “but that seems unlikely if they’re sending Ahsoka out there to check it out.”

“Yeah,” Luke answered, absently.

“They’re having me restock her ship pretty last minute, I have some reports due by the end of the day, so they must be looking to get her out of here asap.”

Luke looked around at the supplies sitting at the bottom of the ramp. 

“I can finish this if you want,” he offered. “I’m waiting for Ahsoka, so I’ll just be sitting here otherwise.”

“Really?” Ro'vena asked, relief flooding her face. “That would be great Luke! It’s just everything sitting over here and then they wanted the coordinates pre-set into the system. Can you handle that?”

He nodded and hopped down off the crate to begin carrying things into the ship. 

It didn’t take long, it was mostly food and medical supplies. Luke carried it easily to the passenger lounge and stored it in its proper place. Then, he went to the cockpit and set the coordinates for a planet he’d never heard before, but was far out in the mid-rim. 

_Tenriri._ A four hour hyperspace journey away. Could new Sith really be hiding so close?

Luke sat in the copilot chair and waited while the navicomputer finished loading the information, thinking hard. A stupid, but enticing thought was running through his head.

What if he went with Ahsoka to confront the Sith Lord? What if instead of telling the adults in his life that he was ready to be more independent, Luke showed them? If he could help Ahsoka apprehend the Sith and bring them back to Coruscant, everyone would see he was ready, there would be no disputing it. They wouldn’t need to have a talk, it would be obvious he was right!

At first, even in his own head, Luke realized that sneaking away probably wasn’t the smartest idea, especially after his latest stunt. But the more he turned the idea over, the more he came to the realization that it was the only way to prove himself. They could sit around and talk all day, but the only way to really show them he could take care of himself was to do something a little daring. Isn’t that what they had always taught him? To listen to his instincts? And, right now his instincts were telling him he needed to be on this mission.

Luke leapt from his seat and dashed back to the passenger lounge. He needed to hide somewhere on the ship before Ahsoka returned because while Luke was convinced this was a good plan, he highly doubted anyone else would and he didn’t have time to plead his case before Ahsoka needed to leave, they would be convinced when he returned.

After a moment of stalled deliberating, Luke returned to the storage compartment he had just restocked and opened it. There seemed to be enough room for him to squeeze in if he moved the crates around a bit. It took no time for Luke to shuffle some stuff around and squeeze in close to the wall, out of direct sight of the compartment’s entrance. The fit was tight, but not too uncomfortable. It was rare times like this when Luke didn’t mind being short. 

Not long after, Luke could sense someone was coming back to the ship, and then it was time for phase two of his plan. 

After Cliko had told Luke that he was loud in the Force, Luke went researching for ways to fix that. In his research, he had found something in the archives called ‘stealth’ that could be used to mask one’s presence in the Force. He had intended only to learn it to use during meditation to spare himself the embarrassment of all of his emotions being broadcasted in front of his classmates, but he was glad it was useful for other stuff, too. 

As Luke slid into the familiar embrace of the Force, he followed all of the forms he had been practicing the past couple weeks. He closed his eyes and imagined spreading himself so thinly across the Force that his presence was nothing more than a razor thin layer, barely there and undetectable. He had no way of knowing if it would actually work, he had never tested it around someone who could verify it’s success. Luke crossed his fingers and waited. 

A noise came from the ramp of the ship, and soon voices filtered in. 

“…all set, Ahsoka.”

“Thanks, Ro’vena.”

Luke could sense Ahsoka, Ro’vena, his father, and Obi-wan in the passenger lounge of the ship, less than 10 feet from him. He held his breath and waited.

“Did you see little Skywalker when you came in? He was lookin’ to say good-bye to you,” Ro’vena added. 

“No, I didn’t.”

“He probably got impatient and went home. Obi-wan and I are headed there now to have that talk. We’ll tell him you said good-bye, Snips,” his father said. 

“Thanks, Anakin,” Ahsoka replied. “And a tip for the talk, actually listen to him. He’s more intuitive than you give him credit for. He’ll know if you’re bullshitting him, I always did.”

She sounded like she was wagging a finger in front of his father’s face and Luke smiled at the mental image. 

“Of course.”

“Good luck, Ahsoka,” Obi-wan cut in. “Report anything you find immediately to the Council.”

“I will, Obi-wan.”

“May the Force be with you.”

They said their last few good-byes and then everyone departed the ship except Ahsoka, who moved toward the cock-pit. Even as he felt the ship rumble to life beneath him, Luke didn’t move a muscle. It seemed almost impossible to him that his plan had worked. Shocked couldn’t describe how he felt when he realized he was going to get away with joining Ahsoka on the mission. He was also a little proud of his ability to teach himself stealth, which was probably the only reason it worked at all. 

Luke wiggled around, getting a little more comfortable in his cramped space. He couldn’t come out until they were well into their hyperspace journey or Ahsoka would just turn around, hopefully they’d be far enough away before anyone noticed he was missing. 

Despite the fact that Luke had just woken up from a long nap not even two hours ago, he felt himself drifting off pretty quickly. He had nothing better to do while he waited so he gave into the pressures of sleep just as he felt Ahsoka make the jump to hyperspace. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Two updates in two days? It's a Christmas miracle! 
> 
> Stuff is starting to heat up, I hope y'all like it :)
> 
> As always, you can find me on tumblr @laheyy
> 
> -Mara


	4. Whispers From A Nightmare

“Who are you?”

Luke’s eyes flew open and he scrambled to sit up quickly, taking in his surroundings as he did because, from what he could tell, he wasn’t in the storage compartment on Ahsoka’s ship anymore. The walls around him were a deep black and looked to be carved from a rough, natural looking stone. They curved up and met the ceiling in one solid piece and Luke got the impression that it was some sort of cave. It was so cold, Luke shivered where he sat. 

Where was he?

A voice pulled at his attention again. 

“Who are you?”

On the other side of a thick looking set of iron bars that obstructed Luke’s only exit from the stone room was a hooded figure shrouded in the shadows of the space’s dim lighting. Luke moved toward them slowly, trying to get a better look. 

“Who are you,” Luke asked back. “Where am I?”

The hooded figure was silent. They stayed firmly in the darkness. Luke grasped the cool metal bars. 

“Can you get me out of here? Please?”

There was some hesitation in the stranger, Luke could feel them wrestling with a myriad of emotions. He couldn’t get a firm read on them, but he felt connected to them on a level that felt deeper than was normal for a stranger in the Force.

“Hey,” he tried again, “do you mind telling me where we are at least?”

Luke was used to nightmares, he could recognize when he was having one even in the fogginess of unconsciousness. This didn’t feel like that. It lacked the slightly blurred qualities that dreams and nightmares came with. Everything around him now was sharp and clear as if it was happening in real life. But how could that be? He was just in Ahsoka’s ship. 

His companion stayed resolutely silent.

“Listen, I don’t know how I got here but if you’d just tell me how I can-”

Luke was cut off by the echoing sound of shuffling footsteps, someone was coming. The figure whipped their head in the direction of the noise, tension tightening their posture. Luke felt a chill travel down his own spine. 

Then, the figure stepped out of the shadow and raised a hand in Luke’s direction. 

“You have to go,” they said, urgently.

“Go? Go where?”

Luke tried to catch a glimpse of the figure’s face beneath the hood, but it dipped too low. 

The last thing Luke saw was the figure swiping a gloved hand diagonally between them as the air around him split, and cave, figure, and the flickering light dissolved into nothingness. 

Then, Luke opened his eyes again, and for a moment he was disoriented. His heart was racing in his chest, but as it began to settle back to a less aggravated pace, he was able to focus on his surroundings. He was squeezed tightly into a dim space and there was a faint rumbling beneath him that could only be a ship moving smoothly through hyperspace. 

So, he was still in Ahsoka’s ship, which meant he must have just been dreaming.

 _But it felt so real,_ Luke thought to himself as he tried to shake off the dream and also stretch his cramped limbs in what little space the closet offered. 

Luke wondered how long they’d been in hyperspace. He wasn’t sure how much longer he could stay curled up in the dark and after that unsettling dream, he wanted to be in there even less. He decided to take the chance that they were far enough away from Coruscant and go reveal himself to Ahsoka. 

As he stood, he let out a small groan and stretched his sore back and muscles. Then, he used the Force to open the compartment from the inside and carefully stepped over the crates, through the passenger lounge, and hesitated a moment before entering the cockpit. Luke didn’t want to startle Ahsoka, lest she think she’s being attacked and swing a lightsaber at his head. 

He settled on revealing himself to her in the Force first. Gently, Luke gathered himself in the Force again, pulling taut all the threads of himself he had loosened in order to remain invisible to his family. Then, he tugged gently on Ahsoka’s presence. 

Her response was immediate. Before Luke could move, the cockpit door was sliding open and Ahsoka jumped through, one lightsaber extended, ready to strike.

Luke jumped back in fright, reaching for his own lightsaber, but not igniting it. 

“Ahsoka! Ahsoka it’s me!”

Ahsoka paused, lightsaber poised to strike before she blinked and straightened up, dropping her defensive pose. 

“Luke?” She squinted at him, incredulously. “What the krif are you doing here?”

“You said I could come with you,” he said simply.

Ahsoka just stared at him like he’d grown three heads.

“Yeah,” she answered, her voice rising slightly as she continued, “but everyone decided this trip was too dangerous and I think you were told that.”

Luke shrugged. “Well, I think everyone was wrong. Don’t I get a say in what missions are too dangerous?”

“Luke, you don’t get to disobey orders just because you want to. I happened to agree with your Master _and_ your father on this one. This isn’t a good training mission.” 

Luke just rolled his eyes. “You sound just like them. You’re all just being protective. I think I can handle it. Are you telling me you never snuck onto a mission with my dad even though he told you not to?”

Ahsoka sputtered and crossed her arms over her chest. “This isn’t about what I did or didn’t do as a Padawan. This is about you. What about that talk you were supposed to have tonight?”

“I skipped it. After this mission, they’ll see I can handle myself. Those Jedi Knights sent here before you couldn’t have been much older than me and they handled themselves.”

Ahsoka gave him a pained look and then said gravely, “the two Jedi sent on this mission are dead, Luke. They never came back. Master Yoda felt them become one with the Force, and so did both of their previous Masters.”

Luke was stunned. Nobody had said anything. “Why did nobody say anything?”

“I’m here to find out what killed them and see if I can recover the bodies. The Council didn’t want people to know before we understood what we were dealing with.” 

While that made sense, it was also something Luke would have liked to have been aware of before he snuck aboard Ahsoka’s ship. It might have changed things a little. 

But this wasn’t the time for cold feet, Luke told himself. 

“Well,” he started, a little less confidently, “I’m here with you aren’t I? We’ll watch each other’s back. Simple as that.”

“It’s not as simple as you think, junior,” Ahsoka sighed, putting a hand to her forehead. “Did you at least leave a note?”

“Uhh,” Luke hesitated. He had thought of that, but there just hadn’t been time.

“I’ll take that as a no. Dank farrik, your parents are going to kill me.” She turned and walked back into the cockpit. Luke followed and dropped into the co-pilot chair.

“No, they won’t. I’ll tell them it was all my fault. I’m the one who hid on your ship, you had no idea.”

Ahsoka was fiddling with some controls but paused, turning to look at him inquisitively. 

“How _did_ you sneak on my ship?” 

“I hid in a storage closet.”

“Okay, I believe that, but I would have sensed you. Your father would have sensed you, he was on the ship.”

“I, uh,” Luke stuttered, “sorta hid myself from all of you in the Force.”

“Force stealth?” Ahsoka repeated, shocked. “Did Obi-wan teach you that?”

“No,” Luke answered, defensively. “I taught it to myself. It wasn’t that hard.”

Ahsoka just stared at him. Luke felt himself grow uncomfortable under her searching gaze before she cracked a small smile.

“You’re such a Skywalker,” she mused fondly, shaking her head.

She wasn't actually angry at all and Luke gave her a smile in return before asking, “are you still going to call my parents?”

“Oh, of course,” she said, returning her attention to the control panel, “if I don’t, your father will have my head and it won’t even matter that I had nothing to do with your little adventure.”

Luke groaned. “When are you going to do it? I need to prepare myself.”

“This ship doesn’t have inter-hyperspace comm units, so as soon as we drop back into normal space which should be about,” Ahsoka checked the navigation system, “now.”

Just then the hyperdrive reversion alarms blared and Luke strapped himself in just as Ahsoka’s ship jerked out of hyperspace and a huge, green planet loomed in front of them.

“Tenriri,” Luke said. 

“Yeah,” Ahsoka affirmed, putting her ship in neutral, “and it’s going to have to wait.” 

Ahsoka hit call on the system’s comm unit and it only took a few rings before Anakin’s blue face lit up the cockpit looking concerned and stressed out. 

“Hey Ahsoka, I’m really sorry but I’m going to have to transfer you to Master Plo or something because we’re having a bit of a family emergency here-”

“About your missing son?” Ahsoka guessed, cutting him off.

“Yeah,” Anakin said, “how did you-”

Ahsoka spun the camera so that it landed on Luke. He smiled sheepishly and raised a hand to wave at his father.

“Hi, dad.”

His father didn’t look amused. He was shocked for a moment but then his brow furrowed and he looked murderous. 

“Luke,” he said slowly, “what the hell are you doing on Ahsoka’s ship.”

“Going on the mission,” Luke answered, matter of factly.

His father took a moment to gather himself. Luke knew he was trying not to lose his temper. 

“Do you have any idea how worried we’ve been here? How worried Obi-wan is? How worried _your mother_ is?” Luke didn’t think it was working, his temper was lost. 

Luke gulped, but didn’t say anything.

“Obi-wan and I went home, ready to have nice talk with you and your mother and you aren’t even there! Your mother hasn’t seen you, your comlink says out of service, and you’re not present in the Force. Obi-wan thought you’d been kidnapped, I thought you were dead!” By the end, his father was yelling and Luke shrunk into himself the longer it went on, guilt filling him. 

“We’ve been running around Coruscant looking for you, worried out of our minds! But, no it’s okay, you’re just on a mission with Ahsoka you were explicitly told not to be on! Do you have any idea how much trouble you’re in?”

Luke couldn’t answer, he didn’t regret sneaking on the mission, but he did feel horrible for not leaving a note. He hadn’t considered how worried his parents would be in that brief period where they couldn’t contact him before he and Ahsoka dropped out of hyperspace. 

“I’m sorry,” Luke said quietly, “I should have left a message.”

“You shouldn’t be there at all!” His father yelled. 

Ahsoka, who had been sitting quietly with her arms crossed, took pity on Luke and turned the camera back on herself. 

“Well, there’s nothing that can be accomplished now by yelling at each other. He’s here, what do you want me to do about it?”

As his father was thinking, Luke heard Obi-wan’s voice approaching before his blue image lit up the cockpit next to his father. 

“I didn’t find him at any of the nearest bot fighting hotspots. I can check some of the lesser known ones, but I’m not sure this is-oh, hello, Ahsoka. Is something wrong with the mission already?”

“Oh something’s wrong all right,” his father said. Again, Ahsoka spun the camera so that Luke could be visible. Obi-wan gaped at him in surprise before composing himself and putting a hand up to stroke his beard.

“Well this solves one problem and presents an entirely new, unexpected one.”

“What do you guys want me to do,” Ahsoka asked, putting the camera back on her. “Bring him back?”

Luke looked at her strictin, silently pleading with her to let him stay. 

“No,” Obi-wan said, “that would waste too much time.”

Luke sat silently, watching his father, Obi-wan, and Ahsoka come up with a plan of action, all equal in their intent to prevent him from partaking in the mission. 

“I mean, he’s already here,” Ahsoka said at one point. “He might as well come with me. What can it hurt now?” 

“Absolutely not. Here’s what’s going to happen,” his father began, “Ahsoka, you continue with the mission as planned, just land a little further outside of the zone we had already cleared. Luke, you’re going to stay in the ship. Do you hear me? You are not to leave the ship. Obi-wan and I are coming to get you.”

Luke was mortified. “Wait, what? Why can’t I just stay in the ship and wait for Ahsoka to be done and then fly home with her? You don’t need to come all the way out here just to get me.”

“This isn’t an in and out thing Luke, Ahsoka could be there for days. She can’t be worried about you and focused on her target. This isn’t up for discussion, we’re coming to get you.”

“Dad, I’m already here. Ahsoka said it herself, I could help her. Why can’t I stay?”

“No, that’s not happening.”

“Dad-”

“Luke, are you really going to argue with me right now? Think real hard before you say anything else.” 

Luke clenched his jaw, but didn’t respond. 

“Maybe Ahsoka should just stay in orbit until we arrive,” Obi-wan suggested.

“We don’t have that kind of time,” Ahsoka said, “plus, Luke is entirely capable of protecting himself if something did happen. You’ll tell anyone on Coruscant about how talented he is, Anakin, trust in that. Also, apparently, he knows Force stealth. He can stay hidden until you arrive if that will soothe your old souls.”

Obi-wan and his father looked at each other, perplexed. 

“Did you teach him stealth?” His father asked Obi-wan.

“Of course not,” Obi-wan answered. “It’s too advanced.”

“I taught it to myself,” Luke grumbled, tired of being talked about in the third person. 

“That’s incredibly impressive, Luke. I’d like to hear more about how and why you did it,” Obi-wan said, managing to pull a shy, proud smile out of Luke. 

“See, he’ll be fine for a few hours on the ship. Don’t hurt yourselves rushing to get here.” Ahsoka winked at Luke over the heads of his father and Obi-wan. 

“Luke,” his father said. Luke got in front of the camera and looked into his father’s sincere, yet tense face. “I’m asking you to please stay in the ship until Obi-wan and I get there. Please.”

“Okay,” Luke said, dejectedly. How quickly had his whole plan gone to bantha shit.

“Good. We’ll see you in a few hours. Good Luck, Ahsoka.”

And then they were gone and the cockpit fell dimmer without the light from the hologram illuminating the space. Luke slumped over in his seat. Ahsoka looked at him with pity.

“Hey, that could have been worse.”

Luke snorted. “How so? I’m going to be grounded for a millenia when I get back to Coruscant and I don’t have anything to show for it.”

“Maybe, maybe not. I did some pretty reckless stuff when I was your age, and your dad was never too crazy on the punishment stuff.”

“Yeah, but you haven’t had a grounding from my mother,” Luke said. “I’ll be lucky if I’ll be free by the time I’m made a Jedi Master.”

Ahsoka chuckled and gripped the ship's steering mechanism tighter as she guided the ship toward Tenriri. “Touché.”

It didn’t take long for them to enter the atmosphere of Tenriri, a heavily forested planet with a few small pockets of civilizations scattered amongst the trees and mountains. Luke greedily took in the sight of it, it would likely be the only one he would get. 

However, as soon as they entered the atmosphere of the planet, Luke felt something shudder unpleasantly in the Force, like two live wires being pushed together. It stung Luke’s senses and was uncomfortably pushing on his mind. Luke tried to pull away from it’s immense pressure but couldn’t.

“Do you feel that?” Luke asked Ahsoka, who didn’t seem to have noticed it at all. 

Ahsoka frowned and studied him. “No. What should I have felt?” 

“I don’t know, it was like tremor in the Force.”

Ahsoka closed her eyes and reached out, both to him and to the deeper well of the Force. He felt her search him, but wherever she was looking wasn’t where the pressure was inside him and Luke didn’t know how to show her where to search.

After a few minutes, she pulled away. “There’s something dark here.”

“Sith?” Luke whispered, seriously.

Ahsoka opened her eyes and began directing their ship toward the planet’s surface, her lips pursed. “I don’t know. Perhaps. That’s what I’m here to find out.”

Their ship touched down in a small clearing surrounded on all sides by a thick wall of trees. 

“I could be helping you,” Luke mumbled, slumping down in his seat. 

Ahsoka put a hand on his shoulder. “I know. You’re pretty crafty, little one, and if it had been up to me, I would have let you come now that you’re already here. But your father and Obi-wan make the rules, so you better stay here and stay out of trouble.”

Luke responded by crossing his arms over his chest. 

“I have to go, stay safe, junior.”

“May the Force be with you,” Luke replied. 

And then Ahsoka disappeared from the cockpit, down the loading ramp, and slipped silently into the forest. Luke was alone and miserable. 

Well, he had four hours before the end of his life. He better enjoy them.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Because Luke is definitely, 100% going to do as he's told and stay in the ship, right?
> 
> This chapter is a little short because the next one is a doozy and I felt it was better to separate them. Anyhoo, I hope you enjoy the chapter, let me know what you think! 
> 
> As always you can find me on tumblr @laheyy
> 
> -Mara :)


	5. Two Halves That Make

Turns out there wasn’t much to do on the ship. Luke spent the first half of waiting to be picked up bored out of his mind, laying on the bench in the passenger lounge making random things float over his head. That quickly became monotonous. Then, to pass the time, he decided he could be responsible and meditate. 

He was in the middle of a moving meditation form when he felt it; the same electric charge he experienced when they arrived, only this time it wasn’t rocking the Force as a whole, but was focusing on him specifically. 

Luke dropped out of his mediation and focused on the foreign presence in the Force. He could feel it nearby, incredibly close and waiting. Waiting for what?

Slowly, Luke reentered the cockpit and gazed out the windscreen into the dark, unending sea of green. There wasn’t anything unusual as far as he could see, but at the same time something was pulling him to look harder, look further. Luke followed his instincts and directed his gaze more to his left and that’s when he noticed something. 

A figure. Someone, cloaked in black, standing just behind the first line of trees. They were short, perhaps shorter than Luke by the looks of it, and stiff as a statue. Luke squinted harder, trying to catch a glimpse of their face but it was obstructed by a black mask and hood.

They just stared at each other, separated by at least twenty feet, but Luke could swear he could hear them breathing. Was this who Ahsoka was tracking? Just from their presence in the Force, they were obviously trained in its use, and trained well. They didn’t feel like a wild Force Sensitive who had been overlooked by the Jedi. This was someone who had mastered its manipulation. And they were staring right at Luke and it felt like a challenge.

After a few minutes that felt like years, the figure stepped back, sinking further into the forest and out of Luke’s sight. But their presence didn’t retreat from Luke’s awareness, they were clearly still nearby and poised like a coiled spring.

Luke was conflicted. He should stay in the ship, do what his father asked of him and not follow the retreating figure into the recesses of an unfamiliar planet. But on the other hand, Luke couldn’t sense Ahsoka nearby at all and the target was slipping further and further away from the Jedi. Luke knew Ahsoka was a more than capable Jedi who could easily capture this possible Sith, but they were right in front of him;  _ so close _ . 

Technically, Luke hadn’t broken any promises, they had come to him instead. That had to count for something. The Force was pounding on his walls and basically screaming at him to follow. That had to count for something, too. He was always being taught to follow the will of the Force, to let it guide him and not to hide from it’s guiding hand. Well, now it was all but shoving him out the door and to follow after the stranger in the woods. 

Something was telling him there wouldn’t be another chance like this. That if he didn’t follow the stranger now, it would be his last chance at finding them, and he so desperately wanted to find them. His muscles were constricting with the urge to chase after them. Luke had never felt the Force’s urgency this potently before. 

Luke sent a silent apology to everyone he had promised he would stay put, and sprinted for the loading ramp, but not before scrawling a quick note on a datapad and leaving it on one of the co-pilot seats in case Ahsoka came back or his guardians arrived before he returned. 

The air on Tenriri was heavy, like it had just rained. There was a wetness clinging to everything that made breathing a little uncomfortable. Luke proceeded to the forest’s edge cautiously, his lightsaber extended in front of him, illuminating the way. He was following the direction of the Force entirely as he crept forward, listening for any sound of footsteps in the brush. 

But there was nothing. Just an eerily silence and the faint whistling of wind through the trees. Luke picked his way over the forest floor foliage carefully, it wouldn’t do him well to trip or attract predators with excessive noise-making. He kept his steps light and his breathing lighter.

Luke had no idea what he was going to do when he found the Sith. Fight them? How did one exactly fight a Sith? Luke didn’t want to kill them, the Council definitely wanted them brought back for questioning about where they came from because wherever there was one Sith, there were always two: an apprentice and a master. Luke really hoped he had stumbled upon the apprentice. 

Out of nowhere, the Force jerked and Luke spun around in barely enough time to catch the red lightsaber swinging at him from the darkness, aiming for his neck.

Red and green collided, and the forest around them seemed to shake with the impact. 

_ Oh,  _ Luke thought,  _ this is definitely a Sith.  _ He didn’t need to have felt the heat from their red lightsaber to figure that out. Being this close, there was a swirling dark cloud surrounding them that made Luke feel nauseous. It was like taking a swig from a jug of blue milk, expecting the sweet coldness to hit your tongue and finding its contents spoiled and sour instead.

Luke unlocked their sabers and flipped backwards nimbly, putting space between them so he could look at his opponent more clearly. They didn’t follow, and it allowed him time to catalogue everything he could about their appearance. 

Although there wasn’t much to catalogue. Like expected, the Sith was dressed head to toe in black, there wasn’t a sliver of skin exposed to hint at what race they might be underneath the black mask they wore to hide their face. The only pop of color were the lenses of their mask that glowed a deep wine red when illuminated by the light from their lightsaber. 

Luke was hesitant. When he had pictured this in his head, he was joined by Ahsoka, who had fought Sith Lords and knew how to proceed with experience and poise. Now he was alone and unsure of how to continue. The Force had pushed him out here, but was now telling him to pull back. 

“I can sense the hesitation in you,” the Sith said in a voice modulated by their mask and spinning their lightsaber menacingly while they stalked toward him. For every step they took toward Luke, he took one away. They circled each other like lothwolves, sizing the other up before they attacked. “Be careful, that could get you killed.”

“No hesitations here, Sith,” Luke snapped back more confidently than he actually felt. “I’m just debating how long I should humor you with a fight before I put you in binders.”

The Sith huffed out a laugh, which sounded odd coming through their vocoder and charged Luke again. 

This time, they exchanged a multitude of blows, all equal in their strength and swiftness. Luke felt himself grow frustrated after his fourth blocked attack, it was impossible to gain ground on this Sith. The only consolation was that his opponent was openly becoming frustrated too, as each of their attacks Luke easily parried just as well. 

With every strike, the Force struck a dissonant note and it hurt Luke’s metaphorical ears. It had never felt like this during a fight before. Granted, Luke hadn’t been in many real fights anyway, but he was pretty sure they weren’t supposed to be this disorientingly colored with the Force. Still, this one felt unusually like someone trying to play music on a broken piano. 

It went on for some time, each of them taking turns at leading in their never ending dance before Luke had another frustrating thought. Even if he managed to subdue the Sith, he had nothing to bind them with, no rope or Force suppressing cuffs to aid in their capture. Luke was proud of his ability to trade blows with the Sith apprentice (he had to assume it was the apprentice because surely a Sith Master would have crushed him to sand already), but quickly realized he was going to need a little more help. 

Maybe if he could lead them back to the ship, he could find something to surprise them with. Or he could fight them long enough for his dad and Obi-wan to show up and help him finish the job. 

That sounded like the best course of action, and he needed a break from this relentless back and forth that wasn’t helping either of them. If they continued on the way they were fighting now, it felt like there would never be a winner. 

He used the Force to push the Sith back so that they stumbled and landed in the dirt. Before they had time to attack again, Luke took off running in what he hoped was the right direction back to the ship. He could hear the Sith following him. 

_ Maybe I should have just stayed in the ship,  _ Luke thought as the Force blared a warning and he dove behind a fallen tree to avoid a projectile thrust at the back of his head. He didn’t stay down for long, despite the burning in his lungs, he had to keep going; back to the ship; back to where his father and Master Obi-wan would hopefully be soon; back where he was  _ supposed _ to be. 

Well, technically, he wasn’t supposed to be there either, but that was a moot point now because he was here, on this mid-rim planet that reeked of the Dark Side with some apparent mask-wearing Sith apprentice who thought throwing nuts the size of mouse droids at his head would slow him down.

“Come back! Come back and fight me like a real Jedi Knight would!” They screamed, not sounding as far behind him as Luke would have liked.

“Technically,” Luke called over his shoulder without breaking pace, “I’m not a Knight yet. I’m a Padawan!” 

The snarl that came from behind him sounded too close, so Luke pushed himself to move faster through the trees. The Sith was small, smaller than him, but, kriff, they were quick. Luke wasn’t sure how much longer he could keep this pace and his exhaustion was making him clumsy. It was his concentrated connection in the Force that kept him from stumbling over protruding roots and other forest debris. 

Luke sensed the lightsaber a moment before it took his head clean off. He stopped running and ducked, letting the Sith over shoot him, and brought his own saber up to block the second slash that came quickly after the first. 

Red and Green collided again with the same planet shaking pressure as before. Luke stared into the red-tinted eye-glass of his opponent and realized another reason why this fight felt so off to him: as they traded striked, he wondered absently why he didn’t feel the anger and will to destroy this Sith like he knew he should. They were the Dark Side’s obvious next plan to resurrect the Sith dynasty after their last one failed fifteen years ago the night Darth Sidious died. For years, the Republic had known and lived in peace. All, except the Jedi, who had lived in fear that they might have missed something. That there was still a chance the Sith could return.

Here was the very tangible proof of that theory; a Sith apprentice who was young and healthy. And Luke had the unfortunate honor of being the one they’d found first, and not the fully trained Jedi who were actually assigned to this mission. 

_ Great _ , he thought to himself. 

Well, technically this is what Luke had asked for when he snuck aboard, so there was nothing he could do but prove everyone wrong who said he shouldn’t be there.

There was only one problem, Luke thought as he held firm against the strength of the Sith’s attacks: no matter how much tried, he couldn’t muster the will to want them dead. The only thing his head was screaming at him was that this wasn’t right. He and the Sith shouldn’t be fighting. They should be on the same side.

Unsettled by these intrusive thoughts, Luke used the Force to push the Sith off of him again. This time, the apprentice stumbled back, but didn’t fall. Luke expected them to immediately attack again, but, somehow, Luke could sense that they were feeling conflicted, too, about attacking him. 

And that confused Luke even more. Why could Luke tell what the Sith was feeling? It didn’t feel like a slip in either of their shielding, it felt like something…  _ more _ than that. 

Their hesitancy toward each other didn’t last long. They were sworn enemies, despite the wrongness the Force was shoving down their throats. Soon, they both seemed to recover and were at each other’s necks again. 

Back and forth they traded blows as they cut a path through the dense forest around them. Every time their sabers collided Luke felt more and more sure they shouldn’t be doing this and it was making his head split. The Force was in turmoil, shock waves were reverberating around them as it screamed warnings at the two of them and begged them to stop fighting. 

It was impossible for one of them to gain ground on the other. Luke knew exactly where the Sith’s saber was going to hit, exactly where their feet were going to move next. In one sense, it was incredibly frustrating: Luke had no idea how either of them were supposed to gain the upper hand and or win this fight.

But at the same time, it felt kind of electrifying. They were dancing, more than fighting. Dueling had never felt like this before, not when Luke practised with Master Obi-wan, or even with his dad. They were connected to each other, sure, but this was another level of understanding that he had never been able to reach with even his closest bonds. 

_ Why, why, why!  _

Luke couldn’t stop asking himself this as he flipped, ducked, and parried again and again.

Somewhere along the way, they had gotten off the path back to Ahsoka’s ship and the two of them were so distracted that they missed the steep drop off that came upon them without warning. With nothing to grab, they both went tumbling over the edge and Luke barely had enough thought to turn off his lightsaber so it didn’t impale him on the way down. Luckily for them, the hill wasn’t very high and after only a few painful somersaults, Luke hit the bottom with a rough  _ thud  _ and a groan. 

Luke was winded, and his entire left side hurt with what was likely either bruised or broken ribs, but despite the pain, he rolled over quickly, wanting to face the Sith apprentice if they were going to attack Luke while he was still struggling to catch his breath. But the Sith made no move to attack him, apparently injured from the fall, too. 

They were facing away from Luke on their hands and knees, one arm cradling their head. They let out a small groan and the next thing Luke noticed about them was that they were human.

The helmet the Sith wore had fallen off during their descent and lay useless a few paces away, exposing the Sith’s face. 

And the Sith was a girl. A young girl, as far as Luke could tell. 

Two long, intricate braids were spilling over her shoulders, and framing her young face, which Luke could see clearly now. And she looked so familiar: the shape of her lips, the slight upturn of her nose, the gentle arch in her brow. The small clef in her chin that matched the one Luke had. 

Neither said a word as they continued their silent stare off. The girl seemed to be taking him in as much as he was her. Maybe her mask distorted things, he thought as her eyes met his. 

Blue met gold, but somehow Luke knew that if her eyes weren’t the bright Sith-gold they would be a warm, chocolate brown.    


She didn’t seem like she was about to attack him again, so Luke tried to do some diplomacy work (something he thought Obi-wan would be proud of). 

“I’m Luke Skywalker, Jedi Padawan. What’s your name?” 

The girl just stared at him, her brows furrowed in what Luke was beginning to think was a permanent scowl. 

“I mean, we don’t have to talk. It’s just,” he tried again awkwardly, “fighting didn’t seem to get us anywhere. The Force was acting weird. You could feel it too, right?”

She remained silent and scowling, but nodded tentatively. Luke managed an easy smile, which in turn, helped to alleviate some of the tension in the Sith’s face. 

“I’m Luke, like I said. I think it would only be fair if you gave me your name as well,” Luke tried again, flashing her another smile. 

He wasn’t sure she was going to answer, but after some clear internal deliberating, she cleared her throat and spoke in a soft voice.

“I am Darth Rienia, Sith apprentice,” she answered, quietly. Her eyes were wide and Luke could tell she was itching to recall her lightsaber and keep fighting. This kind of talking probably wasn’t what she was used to. Did they teach diplomacy to Sith younglings?

There was also something familiar about her voice that Luke couldn’t put his finger on.

“Okay,” he replied calmly, “is that your real name or your given name?”

Reinia just stared at him. Luke didn’t plan, but he figured the more they talked, the more chances he had of someone finding them.

“It’s just,” he continued, “I know that sometimes Sith have their Sith names and then also their birth names. Like Sidious was Palpatine, and Tyranus was Count Dooku, y’know? I’ve always thought that was odd, but maybe it’s tradition.”

Reina scowled again, but this time Luke knew it wasn’t directed at him. She was fighting with something in her head, Luke could feel the tension radiating from her. It was actually kind of painful to bear witness to and Luke wished he knew how to stop it, for himself and for her. 

“It’s okay if you don’t,” he said, trying to curb some of the pain he felt leaking from Reinia. “Reinia is a great name, one of the best I’ve ever-”   


“Leia.”

Luke froze. He must have misheard her. “What?”   


Reinia looked unsure. She began to stand up and Luke followed her lead. Face to face, they stared at each other. 

“Leia,” she repeated more certain this time, “that was my name before. I-I haven't used it in probably a decade, but I’ve always remembered it.”

Luke was too stunned to answer because like a blastershot to the back, he was flung into a memory of a picnic by the Lake in Naboo with his mother and father… 

And his sister. Leia. 

Who had been kidnapped from their bedroom almost a decade ago. In the middle of the night, someone had come in through their window, taken Leia and then came back to try and take him as well. Luckily for Luke, his mother had burst through the doors just as the hooded figure was trying to haul a screaming Luke out of the window. The hooded figure, realizing he wouldn’t be able to take the matching set of Skywalker twins, and in a desperate attempt to distract his mother so that she couldn’t immediately follow, stabbed Luke in the stomach, before dropping him back into the room and fleeing into the night. 

His mother had no choice but to stay with him until medical services arrived and by that time, the man and Leia were long gone. The Jedi had come and searched Naboo for weeks, none more fervently than Master Obi-wan and Aunt Ahsoka. But all of their searching turned up empty. His father never forgave himself for not being with them, his mother for not hearing the commotion sooner. Luke never forgave himself for being the one left behind.

That was ten years ago, but Luke still had the scar on his stomach, and the emptiness in his heart he knew would remain as long as his twin was separated from him.

He looked at the Sith across from him now and felt his stomach twist painfully. It was her, clear as day, now that he knew who he was looking at. In the same way Luke had grown to almost singularly resemble his father, Leia looked like their mother. Except, this wasn’t  _ his _ Leia, the Leia he had shared cookies with or played pilot with on their nursery floor. 

She didn’t even seem to remember him.

All other thoughts and plans disintegrated in his head, leaving only the contradictory feelings of pain and excitement that he had found her, something he was sure would never happen.

“Leia,” he choked out, taking a step forward. “Don’t you remember me?” 

Leia took a step away from him, recalling her lightsaber and crouching into a defensive stance. Luke raised his hands, in surrender. 

Now that he knew the Sith apprentice was Leia, there was no way he could fight her, honestly, with the intent to harm. He just wanted to bring her home with him.

“I’m not going to fight you,” he said. “Leia, it’s me, Luke.”   


“I don’t know you,” Leia snapped at him, her hands tightening around her saber.

Luke’s stomach lurched. Why didn’t she remember him?

“Yes you do.”

“No I  _ don’t _ !”

“Yes,” he yelled, taking a cautious step closer. “I’m your brother. Your twin actually if you want to get more specific about it, although I was born first, so technically you could call me your older brother.”   


Luke was trying to ease the tension, to make his lost sister see reason, or at least believe what he was saying. There was no Jedi class on this:  _ What To Do When Your Kidnapped Sister Who You Thought Was Dead Turns Out To Be A Sith Apprentice 101. _

Leia was scowling again, but this time it wasn’t anger etched into her brow, it was something more painful. Luke felt it like a migraine building behind his eyes. 

“I. Don’t. Know. You,” she swore again through clenched teeth. One of her hands reached up and cradled her head, Luke imagined it was aching as much as his.

But Luke wouldn’t back down, he didn’t know how. Not when she was right here and this whole thing felt like a fever dream of the Force. How could he be so lucky and so cursed to have his sister returned to him in this way.

“Leia, stop and listen to me. You were taken from our bedroom, ten years ago by someone! Mother, father, and I- we’ve never stopped looking for you.” His words were rushed and not exactly what he wanted to stay, but he needed to get her to remember. Luke would do anything.

“Stop it!” Leia screamed, slashing widely at him with her lightsaber. He avoided the swing cleanly and recalled his own lightsaber in the process. She swung again and this time, Luke parried it and continued to try and reason with her.

“Leia, stop this! You’ve been brainwashed or- or something, I don't know-,” he grunted out, blocking her attacks that were becoming more and more harried, losing their precision in the process. She was getting sloppy. But she was also getting angrier and that made her attacks stronger, at least. 

“You’re lying,” she said, dodging the high swing he took. “ _ You’re lying _ !”

Luke couldn’t explain what happened then, but the next time their sabers collided, it was like a bomb exploded. Both of them were flung back from the force of their impact and sent sprawling into opposite ends of the small clearing they were fighting in. 

Luke, already sore and in pain from their tumble down the cliff, propped himself up slowly and looked to Leia. She was getting up, too, and seemed intent to charge again. Luke didn’t want to fight her, wasn't sure he could do this much longer. He was reeling, physically and emotionally from the revelations he had learned. How could he have ever prepared himself for this?

Leia stalked closer and raised her saber to strike. Luke wasn’t sure where his saber had fallen and was too drained to call for it, instead he raised a hand to block himself when a voice through the trees stopped them both. 

“Luke! Luke, where are you!” 

It was his father, distant and distraught. Him and Obi-wan must have landed, seen his note, and gone looking for him. Luke had been so distracted with his fight with Leia that he hadn’t noticed the three separate people trying to get his attention in the Force, none more forcefully than his father. Luke grabbed onto their bond with two hands and yanked, sending up a beacon saying  _ I’m here  _ to him and anyone with his frequency _.  _

Leia froze at the voice and Luke watched as her face crumbled in something like painful, distant recognition. When he sent up the beacon, he noticed that she latched onto it, too, recognizing it for what it was. 

The trees rustled distantly and Luke listened to Leia’s heavy breathing. He tried to grab onto her in the Force.

“Leia, come back with us,” Luke whispered, “we can help you.”

He couldn’t promise that, but he pushed  _ trust me  _ across the bond they had reignited tonight that had laid dormant for a decade. Luke didn’t know what the Council would if they brought her back. She was his sister, but still a trained Sith apprentice and there was so much information they needed from her.

“I don’t need your help,” she said, but she didn’t sound certain. She was apprehensively feeling out the bounds of their connection, like she couldn’t quite understand where it came from. Luke could understand that, he was just as surprised, if not more so, than her. 

“I think you do.”

The hand he had raised in front of him to block her attack shifted into an open palm for her to take instead. Luke broadcasted hope and reassurance toward her and in that last moment of peace, she looked for a moment like she might take his hand. Luke’s heart fluttered at the thought. It couldn’t be this easy, right?

“Luke!” His father called again, significantly closer this time. 

Without warning something cold snapped between them like the crack of a whip, separating their spirits in a way that physically hurt. Instantly, Leia retreated back into herself, the Sith-like scowl returning to her face. 

In one swift motion, she brought her still ignited saber down on Luke’s right hand, severing it clean off at the wrist.

He screamed in agony as his arm exploded in a fiery pain like he had never felt before. His eyes squeezed tight and he pulled the injured stump to his chest protectively. 

The entire world was coming in and out of focus, and he couldn’t think straight over the pain, but Luke managed to look back up at Leia who was staring down at him in confused horror.  Through the haze of pain, he thought he might have seen regret in her eyes. 

“Leia…” he whimpered.

“I-I’m sorry,” she whispered, eyes wide. 

Then, she turned and disappeared through the trees. 

Luke laid there cradling his injury and crying, not only because of the pain in his arm, but for the pain in his sister. He could feel her wholly now, like a door had been opened between them in the Force. She was in pain just as much as he was.

He could feel so many people beating at his mind; his father, Obi-wan, Ahsoka- all trying to get his attention as he continued to lay, exhausted and in pain on the forest floor. He didn’t even have the energy to reach back. His father was the loudest, sending up an inferno of terror into the Force, so strong he was sure the whole galaxy could feel it. It was reassuring and frightening.

Luke just wanted to sleep… 

Consciousness came and went, but after what felt like only seconds, maybe it had been, he heard hurried footsteps coming through the trees. A moment later, someone was dropping to their knees beside him and gripping his face between their hands. 

“Luke, oh Force, Luke, can you hear me?” His father was pleading, tapping him lightly on his cheeks to arouse him. 

But Luke couldn’t seem to make his mouth work right, he was completely spent. 

He used all his energy to put together a weak, slurred, “dad?”

His father gathered him gently into his arms. “Hold on, Luke we’re going to get you out of here.”

A moment later, the ground shifted and Luke realized he had been lifted into the air and cuddled protectively to his father’s chest, his cloak used as a makeshift blanket. Everything around him swam, so to prevent any more dizziness than he already felt, Luke closed his eyes. 

“Hey, kiddo, can you open your eyes? Can you do that for me?” 

Luke tried to follow his father’s voice and presence back to full consciousness, but something was getting in the way.

_ Leia.  _

Where before there had been a gaping hole that Luke was always moments from falling into, there was now a steady bridge that allowed him a clear view of his sister. It was unfamiliar, he barely remembered having this before when they were children but now he couldn’t pull himself away. She was getting further and further from him physically, but in the Force she was just as close to him as if they were joined at the hip. It frightened him a little, if he was being honest, and he could tell it frightened Leia, too. She bucked against it, trying to sever the connection, but it was unbreakable. This wasn’t a training bond between Master and apprentice. They were tied together in the Force permanently, whether they wanted it or not.

_ Fear, anger, confusion, regret…  _

These emotions drifted across their connection and Luke didn’t know what to do with them. 

Voices from another place also drifted into his consciousness from what felt like down a tunnel. 

“How is he,” Obi-wan asked. 

“Not mortally wounded I don’t think,” his father answered, “although…”

Luke felt the cloak shift. 

“Oh Force,” Ahsoka gasped. 

“Like father, like son I suppose,” his father spat bitterly. 

“That’s a lightsaber wound. He fought the Sith.”

“I’m so sorry, Anakin,” Ahsoka apologized, “I shouldn’t have left him, I-”

“This isn’t your fault, Snips,” his father soothed, his arms gripping Luke tighter to his chest. “He’s so much like his mother, that sometimes I forget he’s got a bit of me in there, too. There was nothing that was going to keep him sitting on the sidelines if he thought he could help.”

“Padmé can be stubborn, too,” Obi-wan joked, trying to lighten the mood, “but yes, the incessant leaning toward life threatening recklessness is all Skywalker.”

The rumbling of his father’s chest as he laughed jostled Luke enough that he groaned as his injured ribs were displaced. 

All of the attention honed in on him. 

“Luke, are you awake?” His father asked, hopefully.

Luke just groaned again and tried to open his eyes. They were heavier than he remembered.

“Come on, young one, open your eyes,” Obi-wan urged, kindly. 

It took a few tries but finally Luke managed to pry his stubborn eyelids open to look into the blurry faces hovered above him. They appeared to be in a ship. 

“There you are,” his father said, “you were making me a little nervous, Luke.”

Luke’s tongue stuck in his mouth but he managed a slurred, “my bad… s’rry…”

His father chuckled again and stroked his short hair. “It’s okay, you’re okay that’s all that matters.”

“I’m missing… a hand,” Luke mumbled, the pain his right wrist pushing to the forefront of his consciousness, surpassing all other aches and pains from his fight. 

“Skywalker tradition, it seems; losing our right hands to Sith Lords.”

At the mention of ‘Sith’ Luke shuddered, remembering Leia. His sister. She was alive and they were letting her get away.

“Dad…,” he tried before drifting off.

“Yes?”

He tried again but everything was sliding precariously out of reach. “… need to tell you something.”

His father must have been able to tell how much energy it was taking just to string a sentence together. He shushed him gently. 

“You can tell me later, when we’re back on Coruscant and you’ve been properly cared for. Don’t strain yourself, Luke.”

But Luke was insistent. “No… I…-”

“You must rest, young one,” Obi-wan cut in. 

Then, his father moved the hand that was running through his hair over his eyes and urged sleep across their bond. Luke could barely block that on a good day, but in his weakened state he was defenseless against it.

“Sleep, Luke, we’ll talk when you’re better. You’ll have quite a story to tell.”

That was the last thing Luke heard before he felt himself falling to his father’s suggestion and drifting peacefully into unconsciousness. 

His last thoughts were of Leia; moving further and further from him as he desperately reached out for her presence, just to remind himself that he didn’t imagine her. 

Just as he disappeared into sleep, he felt her tentatively reach back.

  
  


**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I know I just posted chapter four like two days ago but here's chapter five bc I have no self control lol 
> 
> Hope you enjoy it!
> 
> -Mara


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